Republicans vindicated, Dems still screaming ‘Russia!’
After a year-long investigation, the US House Intelligence Committee released a report Friday officially confirming there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia in the 2016 US presidential election.
Vindicated by the report, President Trump took to Twitter to celebrate the news and call for an end to the other “Russiagate” investigations that are still ongoing. White House Special Counsel Robert Mueller is still looking into Trump’s alleged involvement with Russian actors, despite his failure to find concrete evidence or convict anyone of collusion in the year since the probe began.
In addition, the Democratic National Committee (DNC) filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit last week against the Trump campaign, the Russian government and WikiLeaks.
Despite the report’s conclusions, Democrat Rep. Adam Schiff (California) vowed to continue to look for collusion.
“We will continue our investigation using every means at our disposal; to do otherwise would ignore our responsibility to conduct meaningful oversight and insure that the Russians do not possess leverage over the President of the United States,” he said in a statement on Friday.
Schiff later tweeted his dissatisfaction with the report:
Mr. President, to conclude there is “no evidence” of collusion, you must ignore Russia’s extensive efforts to help your campaign, the litany of communications between Russia & your campaign, & the massive effort to conceal these contacts. Here’s the truth: https://t.co/ufM7sszcxWhttps://t.co/k2TX7LYfU5
— Adam Schiff (@RepAdamSchiff) April 27, 2018
In a submission to Congress last month, House Democrats blasted the Republican-led investigation.
Its conclusions, they wrote, “have been crafted to advance a political narrative that exonerates the President, downplays Russia’s preference and support for then-candidate Trump, explains away repeated contacts by Trump associates with Russia-aligned actors, and seeks to shift suspicion towards President Trump’s political opponents and the prior administration.”
For Republican and Trump-supporting pundits, however, the report served to confirm what they believed all along: that Donald Trump is innocent, and that the “Russiagate” investigation is a politically-motivated witch-hunt.
The Intel Committee Report is out--the committee found "no evidence" of any collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.There's "no evidence" because it didn't happen--the "collusion" case was empty from day 1. It is time for Mueller to end this.https://t.co/oTrjNpazmt
— Mark Meadows (@RepMarkMeadows) April 27, 2018
House Intel Cmte’s #Russia report confirms what’s been made clear for months — the collusion conspiracy theory is a fraud perpetrated on the American people to try to undermine and ultimately destroy a presidency https://t.co/tiMDKjmmrmpic.twitter.com/ZVeh1bMcaz
— Benjamin Weingarten (@bhweingarten) April 27, 2018
Further demonstration that Mueller special counsel investigation harassing @RealDonaldTrump is a zombie. Shut it down. https://t.co/now07jzy2L
— Tom Fitton (@TomFitton) April 27, 2018
House Committee Report: "Finding #26: The Committee found no evidence that President Trump's pre-campaign business dealings formed the basis for collusion during the campaign."So much for "muh Russia."
— Larry Schweikart (@LarrySchweikart) April 27, 2018
The report did not please some anti-Trumpers and #resistance members on Twitter, though, who ignored its findings and continued to scream “Russia!” to anyone still listening:
House Intel majority report suffers from premature exoneration: finds no collusion despite incomplete survey of evidence and witnesses. Are they really so much smarter that they can finish ahead of Senate & Mueller probes? No-- just more eager to whitewash https://t.co/4O9zM4qdrf
— Norm Eisen (@NormEisen) April 27, 2018
House Intelligence Committee releases bogus report contradicting reality, declares there was no collusion when all evidence proves there was.Don Jr., Kushner & Manafort met with a RUSSIAN SPY/lawyer, Natalia Veselnitskaya in Trump Tower to get dirt on Hillary.COLLUSION PROVEN pic.twitter.com/iFUhXfbmrA
— A.Silver-MeMEs & GIFs (@SilverAdie) April 27, 2018
The House Intelligence Committee Report issued by Republican members actually claims that there was no evidence of collusion and the fact that the Trump campaign tried to set up a back channel to Russia, proves that they couldn't have colluded...WTF!
— Brian Krassenstein (@krassenstein) April 27, 2018
Former CIA Director John Brennan called the report “highly partisan” and said that it “means nothing.” Brennan hinted that Mueller’s ongoing investigation would be more authoritative, and comprehensive, warning President Trump to “stay tuned.”
A highly partisan, incomplete, and deeply flawed report by a broken House Committee means nothing. The Special Counsel’s work is being carried out by professional investigators—not political staffers. SC’s findings will be comprehensive & authoritative. Stay tuned, Mr. Trump.... https://t.co/Jx3jh8fomu
— John O. Brennan (@JohnBrennan) April 27, 2018
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