Trump slams FBI, airs frustration over investigation
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Venting his fury over the Russia investigation, President Trump asserted Sunday that the Obama administration bears some blame for the election meddling, insisted he never denied that the Kremlin interfered in the 2016 U.S. campaign and said “they are laughing their asses off in Moscow.”
In a rapid-fire series of tweets from his Palm Beach estate, the president unloaded over the Russia investigation, days after an indictment from special counsel Robert Mueller charged 13 Russians with a plot to interfere in the U.S. presidential election.
Trump focused on the fact that the Russian effort began in 2014, before he announced his White House run. He said the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, Burbank Rep. Adam Schiff — calling him “Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control” — “is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election.”
Trump appeared to be referring to an interview Schiff did with NBC in which the lawmaker said the previous administration should have set up a “more forceful deterrent” against cyberattacks after the 2014 hack of Sony Pictures.
In late 2016, President Barack Obama defended his administration’s response to the Russian meddling, also saying he had confronted Russian President Vladimir Putin that September, telling him to “cut it out.”
In his Russia-related posts Sunday, Trump asserted that he “never said Russia did not meddle in the election,” and added: “The Russian ‘hoax’ was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia — it never did!”
The president has repeatedly expressed skepticism over the Russian election meddling. In November, he said he believed the conclusion of U.S. intelligence agencies that there had been meddling. But Trump also said he believed Putin was sincere when he said Russia didn’t interfere.
Trump also argued Sunday that the investigations are just what the Russians want, saying: “Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams. They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!”