Trump relays falsehoods, spins to 2016 election win in post-transcript release press conference

President Trump's press conference after the Ukraine transcript release was fully within his comfort zone.

The White House on Wednesday released a memorandum from a call between Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, which shows Trump pushed Zelensky to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden's son, Hunter Biden. But Trump didn't want that to be the focus of his post-United Nations General Assembly press conference, and he blatantly avoided the subject throughout it.

Trump kicked off his press conference by trying to compare his current scandal with some past actions by Senate Democrats, prompting MSNBC to cut away and confirm what he was saying was false. Trump stayed uncharacteristically low energy throughout the rest of his prepared comments, and kept that lack of enthusiasm when questions rolled around.

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But even though he was asked about the Ukraine debacle and the impeachment investigation against him, Trump only said he'd release his other conversations with Zelensky, as well as Vice President Mike Pence's, before spinning off to other subjects. He decried the "viscousness" of House Democratic leaders and claimed they "laugh" about him behind closed doors, and heaped his usual praise on Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and other allies. He then bemoaned his loss of his title as "the king of getting good press," which apparently faded when he became president and stopped being his own anonymously laudatory source.