President Donald Trump repeated the phrase “no collusion” at least seven times and the word “collusion” at least nine times during a press conference with Prime Minister Solberg of Norway on Wednesday, January 10. As seen in the above video from the official White House YouTube channel, President Trump and Prime Minister Solberg made statements and took questions in the East Room at the White House. After the meeting and question-and-answer session, folks on Twitter started talking about the many times Trump spoke of “ no collusion ” between the Trump campaign and Russia, with the president accusing Hillary Clinton of collusion and the Democrats of allegedly creating a hoax.
As reported by the Hill , President Trump claimed that because there was allegedly “no collusion” between his camp and Russia, there was basically no need, in Trump’s viewpoint, to meet with special counsel Robert Mueller within the coming weeks. Trump said a meeting between him and Mueller was “unlikely,” although it’s not clear if that means Trump will refuse to meet with Mueller.
Trump claimed that folks would have to “see what happens” as the Mueller investigation into any potential collusion during the 2016 presidential election continues.
“When they have no collusion… it seems unlikely that you’d even have an interview.”
“There has been no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russians. … It’s a Democrat hoax that was brought up as an excuse for losing an election,” President Trump says during news conference https://t.co/969ycg6BIv pic.twitter.com/tpB8AMyLa8
— CNN (@CNN) January 10, 2018
Although Trump continues to insist that there was “no collusion” and that everyone knows there’s been “no collusion,” detractors aren’t so sure. On social media, Trump has been accused of “magical thinking,” with commentators wondering if Trump keeps repeating “no collusion” in order to convince the general public that there was, in fact, no collusion with Russia.
However, as reported by CNN , Trump blamed the collusion talk on a hoax that he said was perpetuated as an explanation for Trump’s opponents losing the presidential election. Despite Trump’s protests, the publication is confirming that Mueller will likely seek to interview Trump in the near future. Trump said that he spoke with his lawyers about the matter, which represents a change in previous months when Trump told a reporter he would be 100 percent willing to speak under oath to Mueller.
Trump called the collusion talk a “phony cloud” over the Trump administration.
“There was absolutely no collusion, everybody knows it. I’ve been in office for 11 months, for 11 months they’ve had this phony cloud over this administration, over our government, and it has hurt our government.”
Poll: Majority of voters say Trump isn’t fit for office https://t.co/eoRh0lu3Dh pic.twitter.com/cdijfYSPva
— The Hill (@thehill) January 10, 2018
