From WNYC in New York, this is on the media.

I'm Brooke Gladstone.

And I'm Bob Garfield.

And then the unreality unraveled.

This was the week when Donald Trump's reflex to fabricate, conceal, attack, and deny finally overwhelmed his own White House.

The firing of FBI director James Comey, premised on a transparent lie about Hillary Clinton's

emails, forced presidential surrogates into an elaborate but flimsy fiction.

Vice President Mike Pence.

We have a president who's willing to provide the kind of decisive and strong leadership

to take the recommendation of the Deputy Attorney General and the Attorney General to remove an FBI

director.

White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer with ABC's Jonathan Carl.

Sean Spicer insisted the president fired Comey solely because of the recommendation of Deputy Attorney General Rosenstein and the Justice Department.

So the White House had no involvement in this decision, in this decision to write this letter by the Deputy Attorney General?

That's correct.

Here's Spicer again, cornered by the press as he literally took refuge in the West Wing hedges.

Is the president made the decision today?

Yes.

That statement was swiftly inoperative.

Because in your letter, you said I accepted their recommendation, so you had already made the decision.

Oh, I was going to fire regardless of recommendation.

It wasn't the Justice Department's recommendation.

...