Trump Admitted Russia Interfered In 2016 — And Denied It An Hour Later

By Lauren Rearick


In an early morning tweet published on Thursday, May 30, President Donald Trump appeared to finally admit that Russian interference in the 2016 election helped him secure a presidential victory over Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.


One day soon after Special Counsel Robert Mueller held a press conference detailing the conclusion of his investigation into the scope of Russian operatives’s influence on the 2016 election, President Trump claimed the investigation was “the greatest presidential harassment in history.”


Notably, at Mueller’s first, last, and only press conference as special counsel, he left no piece of his report up for interpretation: “If we had had confidence that the president clearly did not commit a crime, we would have mentioned so,” he mentioned, adding that the Justice Department prohibits a sitting president from being charged with a crime. “The special counsel’s office is piece of the Department of Justice, and by regulation it was bound by that department policy. Charging the president with a crime was, and for that reason, not an alternative we might consider.”


So perhaps as a smokescreen to distract from Mueller’s statements about whether the president did or did not commit a crime (or perhaps simply because he seemingly can’t help his Twitter habit), Trump went on to allocate his long-overdue confirmation of Russian interference. “Russia, Russia, Russia! That’s all you heard at the starting of this Witch Hunt Hoax...And right now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected. It was a crime that didn’t exist,” he tweeted.


One hour later, Trump went back on his tweet and told reporters, “No, Russia did not help me get elected. You know who got me elected? You know who got me elected? I got me elected. Russia didn't help me at all. Russia, if anything, I think, helped the other side." Per CNN, the Department of Homeland Security, the office of National Intelligence, and the CIA have confirmed that hackers, authorized by the Russian government, carried out a “influence campaign to undermine public faith in the US democratic process, denigrate Secretary Clinton, and harm her electability and potential presidency.”


President Trump has regularly, and incorrectly, denied the proven fact of Russian hackers’ influence with regard to the 2016 election. As segment of their efforts, hackers used platforms including Facebook and Twitter to pose as Trump supporters, and share advertisements and misinformation involving Clinton’s campaign. Based on findings from the office of National Intelligence, it was decided that the “Russian Government developed a clear favorite for President-elect Trump.” Over the course of Mueller’s two-year investigation, 13 Russians and three Russian firms were charged with trying to influence the 2016 election, the Day-to-day Beast reported.


Even right after his own intelligence corporations have confirmed Russian influence, Trump continued expressing denial. In a July 2018 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Trump called Putin’s denials of wrongdoing “very strong,” and said, “I have President Putin [sic], he just mentioned it's not Russia. I'll mention this. I don't visualize any reason why it would be”; one day later, Trump gaslit the American people with a patent denial of his own, on-the-record comments, insisting he meant to mention wouldn’t as a substitute opposed to would.


For his part, Mueller isn’t backing down on the data his team noticed and supplied in their report. “There were countless, systematic efforts to interfere in our election,” he said at Wednesday’s press conference. “That allegation deserves a persons vision of every American.”