EXCLUSIVE: President Trump tells @GStephanopoulos that he "wasn't gonna fire" special counsel Robert Mueller because "I watched Richard Nixon go around firing everybody, and that didn't work out too well." https://t.co/J72Biz1YSs pic.twitter.com/glA1e6L57y

— This Week (@ThisWeekABC) June 16, 2019

Donald Trump insisted in a recent interview that he chose not to "go around firing everybody" during the Russia investigation because it did not "work out too well" for President Richard Nixon, who resigned from office. He also said that the U.S. Constitution allows him to do "whatever I want."

In an interview on ABC, host George Stephanopoulos noted that the special counsel's report said that Trump had ordered his White House counsel to fire Robert Mueller.

"Number one, I was never going to fire Mueller," Trump insisted. "I never suggested firing Mueller."

"That's not what [the special counsel] says," the ABC host interrupted.

"I don't care what he says," Trump snapped.

"Why would [the White House counsel] lie under oath?" Stephanopoulos wondered.

"Because he wanted to make himself look like a good person," Trump argued. "Number one, I didn't. He wasn't fired. But more importantly, Article II [of the Constitution] allows me to do whatever I want. Article II would have allowed me to fire him."

"I wasn't going to fire him," the president added. "You know why? Because I watched Richard Nixon go around firing people and that didn't work out too well."