“I fired [former FBI Director James] Comey. I fired a lot of people. A lot of the people I had, I fired. I fired Comey very early. And, you know, there was a question as to whether or not you could. But I fired Comey. If I didn’t fire Comey, I don’t think I would have been able to serve out my term because that was a plot.”

Bartiromo asked Trump about his track record of hiring staff who later spoke out against him, such as former Attorney General Bill Barr or former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, and what he would do differently if he got a second term.

“The mistake would be people,” Trump said, referring to some of his personnel moves. “I mean, I wouldn’t have put a guy like Bill Barr, and he was weak and pathetic. I wouldn’t have put [former Attorney General] Jeff Sessions. And there are some people that I wouldn’t have put in. You know, most people were good, but I had some people … we had Mark Esper. I didn’t like him. He was incompetent. I thought we had other people I didn’t like.”

“Why did you put them in the job then?” Bartiromo asked.

“I didn’t know the people,” Trump said. “I know the people now better than anybody has ever known. The people I know, the good ones, the bad ones, the dumb ones, the smart ones.”

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Trump is noncommittal on whether he will attend the first Republican presidential candidate debate, saying he does not need to when he has a substantial lead over other GOP candidates.

A RealClearPolitics analysis of recent polls shows Trump leading in all of them, with an RCP average of 53%. He holds a 32.4% lead against Gov. Ron DeSantis (R-FL), who polls at 20.6%.