EXCERPT:
TRUMP: "Look, he's a showboat, he's a grandstander. The FBI has been in turmoil. You know that, I know that. Everybody knows that. You take a look at the FBI a year ago. It was in virtual turmoil less than a year ago. It hasn't recovered from that."
HOLT: "Monday you met with the deputy attorney general Rod Rosenstein."
TRUMP: "Right."
HOLT: "Did you ask for a recommendation?"
TRUMP: "What I did is, I was going to fire Comey. My decision."
HOLT: "You had made the decision before they came in the room?"
TRUMP: "I was going to fire Comey. There's no good time to do it, by the way. They—"
HOLT: "Because in your letter you said, 'I accepted their recommendations.' So you had already made the decision?"
TRUMP: "I was going to fire him regardless of recommendation."
HOLT: "So there was no —"
TRUMP: "He made a recommendation. He's highly respected, very good guy, very smart guy, the Democrats like him, the Republicans like him. He made a recommendation. But regardless of recommendation, I was going to fire Comey."