President Donald Trump told reporters that he was planning on spending a quiet weekend at Mar-a-Lago, but kept off the golf course — likely over concerns that Trump partaking in his favorite pastime might be bad optics following a mass shooting — Trump had no choice but to spend Saturday and Sunday tweeting about Special Counsel Robert Mueller’s 13 indictments leveled on Friday.
Beginning on Saturday, Trump launched into an extended rant on the subject of Russian interference, citing New York Post articles and Facebook higher-ups, as a way of suggesting that Muller’s indictments — which charged several Russian operatives as well as a single, large “content farm” operation well beyond the special counsel’s reach — prove once and for all that the Trump campaign was innocent of collaborating with a foreign government to throw a presidential election.
First, he took to task a number of officials whom he apparently feels should have been more thoroughly investigated, from “Crooked” Hillary Clinton to “Liddle'” Adam Schiff, the Democratic lawmaker Trump believes has been responsible for leaks of information from closed-door Congressional testimony.
General McMaster forgot to say that the results of the 2016 election were not impacted or changed by the Russians and that the only Collusion was between Russia and Crooked H, the DNC and the Dems. Remember the Dirty Dossier, Uranium, Speeches, Emails and the Podesta Company!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
Never gotten over the fact that Obama was able to send $1.7 Billion Dollars in CASH to Iran and nobody in Congress, the FBI or Justice called for an investigation!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
Finally, Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
Trump then claimed that he knew there was election meddling, though he may not have been sure of its origin.
I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said “it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer.” The Russian “hoax” was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia – it never did!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
This is not entirely true. Back in December, Trump called rumors of Russian interference a “hoax.” It’s a claim he’s repeated several times, though he has maintained that the meddling, if it happened, did not, ultimately, impact the outcome of the election. Instead, he’s said it was intended to sow discord.
He repeated that claim as well this morning.
If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
The Russian indictments have altered the Democrats’ narrative on the subject of Russian interference. Questions have emerged as to how impactful Russian influence was on Donald Trump’s chances of winning the presidency, partly because it seems that the Russians supported Jill Stein’s and Bernie Sanders’ candidacies as well as Trump’s. Stein downplayed the Russian interference allegations Sunday morning and Bernie Sanders has yet to address the claims.
