WASHINGTON — Minutes after special counsel Robert Mueller's redacted report was publicly released, President Donald Trump said he was having a “good day,” adding that “it’s called ‘no collusion, no obstruction.'”
Trump, speaking at a Wounded Warrior event in the East Room of the White House, broke from the program to once again call the investigation into contact between his 2016 presidential campaign and Russia a “hoax,” saying that this sort of scrutiny “should never happen to another president again.”
Trump’s remarks were echoed in a statement from his legal team, in which they claimed “total victory” and “vindication" for the president, saying it marked "an important step forward for the country and a strong reminder that this type of abuse must never be permitted to occur again."
The Trump re-election campaign released a mashup video titled "Time to Turn the Tables!" featuring lawmakers and journalists discussing potential collusion and obstruction of justice. In a statement from Trump's campaign manager Brad Parscale, he claimed the Mueller report had "completely" exonerated the president and warned that "the tables have turned, and it’s time to investigate the liars who instigated this sham investigation into President Trump."
Kellyanne Conway, senior adviser to the president, also sought to shift the spotlight onto the special counsel investigators. "Let's investigate the investigators," she told reporters at the White House Thursday afternoon, "let's see how we got here."
White House officials had been expected to split up the nearly 400-page report to quickly absorb it after its release, each tackling different sections with a particular focus on issues relating to obstruction of justice. Some of the president's allies had expressed concern about what could be coming in the document, hoping that the news would blow over with the upcoming holiday weekend.
However, Trump’s lawyers had already seen the redacted report. According to Trump’s personal lawyer, Jay Sekulow, he and other members of the president’s legal team visited the Department of Justice on Tuesday and Wednesday to review the redacted report before it was released to the public.
The president’s legal team said that the Mueller report released on Thursday only included one of the two parts of written questions that Trump submitted to the special counsel. "In the interest of providing the fuller context, we are releasing the entirety of the response sent to the special counsel," they said in a statement. Additionally, Trump's legal team had reportedly prepared a “counter-report” in response, but had not yet decided whether they would actually release it.
Conway, for her part, said Trump did not need to rebut the Mueller report. "[The] greatest rebuttal is that he's in office," she said to reporters.
Before the report's release, Trump spent much of Thursday morning on Twitter claiming “GAME OVER” and attacking his political opponents.
"NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION. FOR THE HATERS AND THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS — GAME OVER," read the "Game of Thrones"-inflected meme.
In another tweet, he wrote, “The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats,” topping off his tweetstorm with a video mashup proclaiming “No Collusion — No Obstruction!”
Hillary Clinton also seemed to be on Trump’s mind as he awaited the report.
The president retweeted a series of videos and articles from the conservative organization Judicial Watch, including links to articles and videos about the Steele dossier, Clinton’s use of a personal email account as secretary of state, and a video of Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton on Fox News claiming without evidence that the Clinton campaign had coordinated with the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Justice to spy on the Trump campaign.
The president left Washington with the first lady Thursday afternoon to spend the weekend in Palm Beach, Florida. As he left the White House, he did not respond to reporters' shouted questions about the Mueller report.
