President Donald Trump told NBC News’ Lester Holt in an interview aired Thursday night that he thought the Russia investigation into alleged ties between his campaign and Russian officials was a “made up story,” prior to firing FBI Director James Comey. “I was going to fire regardless of recommendation,” Trump said referring to letters he received from his Attorney General Jeff Sessions and and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein. “And in fact when I decided to just do it, I said to myself, I said you know, this Russia thing with Trump and Russia is a made up story, it’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should have won,” he continued. “And the reason they should have won it is the Electoral College is almost impossible for a Republican to win. Very hard. Because you start off at such a disadvantage. So everybody was thinking, they should have won the election. This was an excuse for having lost an election.”