In an early morning Tweetstorm on Wednesday, President Trump blamed the swirling crisis bedeviling his administration over its Russian ties on familiar foes – Hillary Clinton, the US intelligence community and news leaks.
“This Russian connection non-sense [sic] is merely an attempt to cover-up the many mistakes made in Hillary Clinton’s losing campaign,” Trump tweeted in response to reports that members of his campaign team communicated with Russian intel officials throughout the 2016 presidential campaign.
Trump didn’t use the 140-characters-or-less messaging service to explain his theory or deny that his campaign operatives had been in contact with Russian officials.
But in a series of six tweets he blasted out on Wednesday beginning at 3:40 a.m., he took aim at his former Democratic challenger, the “fake news media,” US intelligence agencies and even former President Obama.
“The real scandal here is that classified information is illegally given out by “intelligence” like candy. Very un-American!” he wrote on Twitter.
He blamed the country’s spy agencies of doling out sensitive information about his administration to news outlets.
“Information is being illegally given to the failing @nytimes & @washingtonpost by the intelligence community (NSA and FBI?). Just like Russia,” another of his tweets alleged.
The president appeared to be building on his assertions that “illegal leaks” led to the demise of Michael Flynn, his national security adviser, who stepped down on Monday after reports claimed he met with the Russian ambassador and discussed US sanctions.
On Tuesday, Trump said the leaks were the real story about Flynn’s decision to resign.
“The real story here is why are there so many illegal leaks coming out of Washington? Will these leaks be happening as I deal on N.Korea etc?,” Trump said.
The New York Times reported on Wednesday that Trump campaign officials – including former campaign manager Paul Manafort – kept in contact with Russian intelligence operatives during the presidential campaign. The communications were first discovered in the fall, around the same time US officials discovered the Russians were behind the hacking of the Democratic National Committee and emails of Clinton campaign workers.
Trump also put other news outlets in his cross hairs, blaming the media for fanning the frenzy over Russia to “blind hatred.”
“The fake news media is going crazy with their conspiracy theories and blind hatred. @MSNBC & @CNN are unwatchable,” he said.
But he gave shoutouts to “Fox and Friends,” tweeting they’re “great,” and a columnist at Bloomberg View who wrote an article posted on Tuesday with the headline: “The Political Assassination of Michael Flynn.”
“Thank you to Eli Lake of The Boomberg View – ‘The NSA & FBI … should not interfere in our politics … and is’ Very serious situation for USA,” Trump wrote.
Lake criticized the intelligence agencies after reports said they had captured conversations between Flynn and the Russian ambassador Sergey Kislyak.
“This is what police states do,” Lake wrote.
Even Obama couldn’t escape Trump’s twitter rant.
Bruised by allegations that Trump has been too accommodating to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the president reached back to Russia’s takeover of Crimea in 2014 to make a point.
“Crimea was TAKEN by Russia during the Obama Administration. Was Obama too soft on Russia?” he asked.