WASHINGTON — President Trump again insisted Thursday that he did not fire former FBI director James Comey because of the Russia investigation, blaming the “Corrupt Mainstream Media” for pushing a false storyline. The president’s assertion, in a morning tweet, is at odds with comments he made in a television interview last year in which he said Comey’s stewardship of the Russia probe was on his mind when he made his decision to dismiss him. “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’ve won,’ ” Trump told NBC’s Lester Holt in a May 2017 interview. Before the NBC interview, the White House had said Trump fired Comey at the recommendation of senior Justice Department officials who said he had treated Hillary Clinton unfairly and damaged the credibility of the FBI and the Justice Department. Not that it matters but I never fired James Comey because of Russia!