Trump: I Never Said Russia Did Not Meddle In Our Election. Reality: Your Pants Are On Fire

Robert Mueller’s indictment of thirteen Russian agents for meddling in (among other things) the 2016 election sure does have President Trump on edge. Similarly, Trump’s most ardent defenders are out in full force, declaring the indictments to be “nothing” and with some laughably saying Mueller’s indictment may violate free speech.

People forget Trump was thrilled when Russians fed information to their toady Julian Assange at WikiLeaks, who then dumped DNC emails on a public server for all to see. “I love WikiLeaks!” Trump declared at a campaign rally, holding one of the emails aloft as if he were Neville Chamberlain.

Trump, throughout the campaign and well into his first year as president, repeatedly denied or downplayed Russia’s role in the 2016 presidential election. It wasn’t just the “collusion” aspect. Granted, criticism of the media’s breathless “collusion” angle is definitely warranted. Many in the press were hoping for the smoking gun of an email to Trump from Putin saying, “We got this” and it never emerged. Still, Trump didn’t even want to admit the obvious.

Today, however, Donald Trump wants to tell a different story. He’s claiming never cast down on meddling and only focused on collusion. He tweeted the following:

The internet, while often used as a tool to make people think they’re experts in fields they are not, does provide a functional way for people to check on whether somebody else is lying or not.

And President Trump is lying.

First off there’s the evidence from his tweets. Here are several where he claims Russian meddling was “made up” by Democrats to cover for their loss:

While Trump did refer to the collision angle as a hoax, he also referred to the entire investigation as a hoax as well:

Outside of Twitter, there exists plenty of statements Trump made after his inauguration where he attempted to cast doubt on the legitimacy of Russian meddling even after the CIA, NSA and FBI all agreed it happened. Their joint report, released on January 6, 2017, left no doubt the Russians actively interfered with our presidential election.

Yet here are Trump’s denials after the fact:

May 11, 2017: In an interview with Lester Holt, President Trump says it is a “made up story.” He said, “It’s an excuse by the Democrats for having lost an election that they should’ve won.”

July 6, 2017: Trump says, “nobody knows for sure” if Russia meddled.

November 11, 2017: Trump is explicitly asked by the press if he believes Vladimir Putin when he told Trump that Russia did not meddle in the election. Trump responds, “I really believe that when he tells me that.”

Before the intelligence report release, President Trump was briefed on the contents and he still publicly denied it was Russia:

Mr Trump said it might have been Russia but it was impossible to know.

“They have no idea if it’s Russia or China or somebody sitting in a bed some place,” he said.

He tweeted the following in December 2016:

And this on January 3:

And this on January 4:

Trump and his defenders can say he only denied the “collusion” allegation, but the evidence is clear he most certainly did try to dismiss the claims of Russian interference as well.

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