In a series of tweets that began on Saturday night and spilled into Sunday morning, President Donald Trump continued to downplay attempts the U.S. intelligence community has said were made by Russia to interfere with the 2016 election.
The tweets have largely been in response to Friday’s indictment of 13 Russians by a federal grand jury. Since May, special counsel Robert Mueller has been leading the investigation into alleged ties between the Trump campaign and the Russian government. But even in the tweets that didn’t pertain to Russia, it was clear the president was in the mood to attack.
Trump told the country to “get smart” and said that Russia has succeeded if their goal was to “create discord.”
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
While the indictments unveiled by Mueller on Friday do not allege collusion with the Trump campaign, or having impacted the election tally, Trump has yet to issue any harsh words for Russia. Instead, he targeted H.R. McMaster, his national security adviser who said the evidence that Russian meddled in the 2016 election was “incontrovertible.”
“As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain,” McMaster told a Russian delegate at the Munich Security Conference in Germany, the New York Daily News reported.
Trump went on to tweet that McMaster had left out information that he claimed to be important.
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
He also suggested the FBI had focused too much on the Russia investigation, and therefore missed the opportunity to stop the Valentine’s Day shooting in Parkland, Fla., that claimed 17 lives.
Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
It certainly wouldn’t be a typical tweetstorm if Trump didn’t take shots at his predecessor, former President Barack Obama.
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
But by Sunday morning Trump had a new target and, of course, it was a familiar one. The top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee Rep. Adam Schiff, of California, was both attacked and complimented in the very same tweet by the president.
Schiff got the last word in on Sunday morning and said on CNN that the indictments in no way vindicated the president.
Rep. Adam Schiff on the Russia indictment: “The evidence is now overwhelming and unequivocal and we need to move to protect ourselves from Russian interference in elections that are coming up” #CNNSOTU https://t.co/JguyuUn4U3
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) February 18, 2018
“But this is a president who claims vindication anytime someone sneezes,” Schiff said on “State of the Union.”
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 seemed to finally give an inch, and wrote that “I never said Russia did not meddle in the election,” even though it was reported by CNN earlier last week that he still hadn’t believed Russia interfered. Nonetheless, he concluded with his assertion of innocence, and expressed his campaign never participated in any collusion.
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
Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasn’t I a great candidate?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
Continuing his theme of attack, Trump targeted yet another familiar foe: CNN. The president retweeted a cartoon tweeted by an unverified account that depicted an old an decrepit illustration of CNN’s Wolf Blitzer, who said, “Update! We should see evidence of Russia-Trump collusion any day now.”
The Fake News of big ratings loser CNN. https://t.co/rYsv90cnvs
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
In all, Trump continued to divert attention from a national security issue in order to save himself from any blame, which has even been criticized by some Republicans. Trump has been quick to issue attacks, and condemn the actions of any and all who oppose him, but remains totally silent and unwilling to advance the conversation further on how to protect future U.S. elections.
