The president of the United States continues to lie about the investigators leading the Russia probe, and on Tuesday, tweeted a completely made-up accusation of future election interference by his own Justice Department.
The tweet Tuesday was the latest example of the president co-opting the terminology of his accusers in an effort to tarnish political enemies.
(...)
Trump has repeatedly referred to Mueller’s team as “13 angry Democrats,” although [Robert] Mueller is a Republican. Mueller was appointed by Trump’s deputy attorney general, Rod Rosenstein, and before that was named FBI director in 2001 by Republican President George W. Bush.
(...)
The tweet appeared to be a reference to the fact that multiple lawyers on Mueller’s team, before signing up for the assignment, contributed money to Democratic candidates, including Clinton. The Justice Department is barred from discriminating against employees or applicants on the basis of political affiliation.
In a second tweet Tuesday, Trump said the special counsel’s team should instead be investigating the campaign of his Democratic opponent, whom he described a “totally Crooked Hillary Clinton.”
“Why aren’t the 13 Angry and heavily conflicted Democrats investigating the totally Crooked Campaign of totally Crooked Hillary Clinton,” Trump wrote. “It’s a Rigged Witch Hunt, that’s why! Ask them if they enjoyed her after election celebration!”
(...)
In a third tweet, Trump suggested the Russia probe was taking away some of his focus on other issues confronting the country, including trade deals and the effort to denuclearize North Korea.
“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, and not on the Rigged Russia Witch Hunt that should be investigating Clinton/Russia/FBI/Justice/Obama/Comey/Lynch etc.” the president wrote.
A top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee said the president’s repeated claims that the FBI spied on his presidential campaign are “a piece of propaganda the president wants to put out and repeat.”
California Rep. Adam Schiff told ABC News’ chief global affairs correspondent and “This Week” Co-Anchor Martha Raddatz on Sunday that the president's assertions that the FBI infiltrated his campaign are an attempt to undermine the Mueller investigation of Russia's interference in the 2016 election and possible ties to Trump associates.
(...)
"You have a president peddling these falsehoods and you have essentially people putting out propaganda" to promote that "fiction," the California Democrat said. "This is part of the propaganda machine. 'Let’s spread a completely fallacious story and then let’s say that it needs to be investigated and give it a life of its own.'"
Republican Sen. Marco Rubio said he sees "no evidence" to support President Trump's claims that the FBI used an informant to gather information on his campaign, but that instead the federal probe was focused on "individuals with a history of links to Russia that were concerning."
Trump says investigation of 2016 election interference is now interfering with 2018 elections (WaPo)
Trump borrows language of accusers, critics in Mueller tweet (AP)
Trump accuses Mueller's team of meddling in midterm elections (ABC News)