Trump vents against FBI, Obama administration

Associated Press

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla.

Venting his fury over the Russia investigation, President Donald Trump on Sunday asserted 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.

Russia was clearly top of mind for the president, while the nearby town of Parkland, Florida, continues to mourn a school shooting that left 17 dead. Trump’s schedule for the week, released Sunday, includes a “listening session” with high school students and teachers, though the White House did not immediately provide any information on who would be attending Wednesday’s meeting. Students who survived the shooting have focused their anger on the president, urging him and other elected officials to do something about gun violence.

Trump focused Sunday 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, California 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.

President Barack Obama in late 2016 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.”

Trump has not been seen in public since he arrived at his Florida club late Friday, after a visit to the community shattered by the shooting. That evening, he met with first responders, medical personnel and some victims. He skipped his usual stop at his nearby golf course Saturday, but planned to meet with House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., on Sunday at Mar-a-Lago to discuss legislative priorities.

Trump used the Florida shooting to criticize the FBI, saying in a tweet late Saturday that the bureau “missed all of the many signals” sent by the suspect and arguing that agents are “spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign.”

“Get back to the basics and make us all proud!” he said.