Trump: “No Collusion with Russia”
Developments on Day 416 of the Trump Administration:
Trump Unsettled Over Report on Russia and Impeachment
Donald Trump’s upbeat mood over a Saturday rally in Pennsylvania disappears quickly, as he faces the latest development in the Russia inquiry closing on him.
Trump enjoyed the comfort of a supportive crowd near Pittsburgh as he whipped them up in a rambling speech which often veered from the facts to insult political opponents and the media, praise death sentences on drug dealers, and claim credit for “saving the Olympics”.
See TrumpWatch, Day 415: Trump Tries to Rally in Pennsylvania
But on Sunday morning Trump faced a Page 1 New York Times story, by Maggie Haberman and Michael Schmidt, that he met Emmet Flood, who represented President Bill Clinton during the 1998-1999 impeachment process.
The article was based on information from “four people familiar with the matter”, with two saying no final decision has been made about retaining Flood.
Trump railed on Twitter:
The Failing New York Times purposely wrote a false story stating that I am unhappy with my legal team on the Russia case and am going to add another lawyer to help out. Wrong. I am VERY happy with my lawyers, John Dowd, Ty Cobb and Jay Sekulow. They are doing a great job and…..
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2018
…have shown conclusively that there was no Collusion with Russia..just excuse for losing. The only Collusion was that done by the DNC, the Democrats and Crooked Hillary. The writer of the story, Maggie Haberman, a Hillary flunky, knows nothing about me and is not given access.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2018
As well as venting his fury that the Trump-Russia investigation has not disappeared, Trump fell back on distorted claims about his popularity and “winning”. He wrote, “The Republicans are 5-0 in recent Congressional races” — ignoring the victory by Democrat Doug Jones in last December’s Alabama Senate special election and significant gains in the Democrat vote in the other contests.
Then it was a jab at the Democrats over supposedly blocking approval of his nominees — even though it is the Administration which has failed to fill hundreds of posts — and a focus on one Trump-friendly polling organization to exclude all others:
Rasmussen and others have my approval ratings at around 50%, which is higher than Obama, and yet the political pundits love saying my approval ratings are “somewhat low.” They know they are lying when they say it. Turn off the show – FAKE NEWS!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 11, 2018
Trump has recovered since December, aided by the passage of a $1.5 trillion tax change bill, but his average approval rating across opinion polls is only 40.7%, a historic low for a President at this point in his first term.
