Trump, seemingly mistakenly, suggests Russia helped him win the election

President Trump.
(Image credit: Win McNamee/Getty Images)

President Trump either made a really shocking admission about the 2016 election, or just sent out one of his typically confusing tweets.

On Thursday morning, in apparent response to Special Counsel Robert Mueller's Wednesday statement, Trump tweeted that Russia used to be "all you heard" when Mueller first started his investigation. "And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected," Trump continued, which, yes, is his first public admission that Russia aided in his 2016 run.

See more

Considering Trump's history of being not too careful with his words, it seems unlikely that he really meant to say "Russia help[ed] me to get elected." And sure enough, about an hour later, he took it all back.

Subscribe to The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE
https://cdn.mos.cms.futurecdn.net/flexiimages/jacafc5zvs1692883516.jpg

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up
See more

It all left The Daily Beast Editor-in-Chief Noah Shachtman with one big question: Did Mueller make the "investigative mistake of the decade" by not forcing an in-person interview with a president so prone to letting details slip?

To continue reading this article...
Continue reading this article and get limited website access each month.
Get unlimited website access, exclusive newsletters plus much more.
Cancel or pause at any time.
Already a subscriber to The Week?
Not sure which email you used for your subscription? Contact us
Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn is a graduate of Syracuse University, with degrees in magazine journalism and information technology, along with hours to earn another degree after working at SU's independent paper The Daily Orange. She's currently recovering from a horse addiction while living in New York City, and likes to share her extremely dry sense of humor on Twitter.