Trump's increasing obsession with the Russia investigation, by the numbers
President Trump is ramping up his denials about Russia having any hand in the 2016 election as well as his claims that there is some sort of conspiracy, or "witch hunt," against him. Last June, Trump tweeted about how there was "no collusion" or collusion specifically between the Russians and the Democrats five different times. By this spring, such tweets were in the double-digits:
Tweets about 'no collusion'June 2017: 5January 2018: 3February 2018 : 8March 2018: 6April 2018: 9May 2018: 13June 1-28, 2018: 11 times, including three times today alone
There is a similar pattern when you trace Trump's use of the word "witch hunt," CNN's David P. Gelles noticed:
The same is also true for mentions of Special Counsel Robert Mueller, who is investigating links between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin, Politico's Kyle Cheney shared:
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Ahead of the announcement that he would be meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin next month, Trump tweeted Thursday: "Russia continues to say they had nothing to do with meddling in our election! Where is the DNC server, and why didn't Shady James Comey and the now disgraced FBI agents take and closely examine it? Why isn't Hillary/Russia being looked at? So many questions, so much corruption!"
CBS News' Mark Knoller offered the shorter version: "Pres repeats Kremlin denial, but charges FBI with corruption."
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