President Trump on Tuesday accused, without evidence, investigators working on special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia probe of a partisan plot to meddle in the 2018 midterm elections.
Trump laid out his latest conspiratorial claim in a series of early-morning tweets that included the false assertion that all 13 members of Mueller’s team are Democrats. Mueller himself is a Republican.
“The 13 Angry Democrats (plus people who worked 8 years for Obama) working on the rigged Russia Witch Hunt, will be MEDDLING with the mid-term elections, especially now that Republicans (stay tough!) are taking the lead in Polls,” Trump tweeted. “There was no Collusion, except by the Democrats!”
“Why aren’t the 13 Angry and heavily conflicted Democrats investigating the totally Crooked Campaign of totally Crooked Hillary Clinton,” the president continued. “It’s a Rigged Witch Hunt, that’s why! Ask them if they enjoyed her after election celebration!”
The president has repeatedly referred to the federal investigation into the Trump campaign’s contacts with Russia as a “witch hunt.” Last week, Trump sought to spread the completely unproven claim that a “spy” was “placed” in his presidential campaign by the “deep state” — a term some Trump supporters use to describe career government employees supposedly conspiring against the president.
“Look how things have turned around on the Criminal Deep State,” the president tweeted on May 23. “They go after Phony Collusion with Russia, a made up Scam, and end up getting caught in a major SPY scandal the likes of which this country may never have seen before! What goes around, comes around!”
On Tuesday, the president quoted conservative commentator Mollie Hemingway in another tweet that said Mueller’s “investigation involved far more surveillance than we ever had any idea about.”
“It wasn’t just a wiretap against a campaign aide,” he wrote, quoting Hemingway. “It was secretly gathering information on the Trump Campaign … people call that Spying … this is unprecedented and scandalous.”
While Trump’s evidence-free accusation of the Mueller team’s “meddling” is new, the possibility that the Russia investigation could cloud the midterm elections is not. Earlier this month, Trump’s lawyer Rudy Giuliani told the New York Times that Mueller “hopes” to finish the Russia inquiry by Sept. 1 — and that “waiting any longer would risk improperly influencing voters in November’s midterm elections.”
Trump concluded his latest tweetstorm with a tacit admission that his focus on pushing back against the Russia investigation is distracting from his other duties as commander in chief.
“Sorry, I’ve got to start focusing my energy on North Korea Nuclear, bad Trade Deals, VA Choice, the Economy, rebuilding the Military, and so much more,” he wrote, “and not on the Rigged Russia Witch Hunt that should be investigating Clinton/Russia/FBI/Justice/Obama/Comey/Lynch etc.”
But he couldn’t resist taking one more swing.
“The Fake Mainstream Media has, from the time I announced I was running for President, run the most highly sophisticated & dishonest Disinformation Campaign in the history of politics,” Trump tweeted. “No matter how well WE do, they find fault. But the forgotten men & women WON, I’m President!”
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