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Trump to supporters: "The Russian hoax is finally dead"

President Trump at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan Thursday.
President Trump at a rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan Thursday. Photo: Nicholas Kamm/AFP/Getty Images

President Trump used Attorney General William Barr’s 4-page summary of the Mueller report to take a victory lap and rile supporters at a boisterous Michigan rally Thursday night, declaring: "After three years of lies and smears and slander, the Russia hoax is dead."

Details: This is the president's first rally since the end of Special Counsel Robert Mueller's 22-month Russia investigation, which did not establish any conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russian officials to influence the 2016 election, according to Barr. Trump used his campaign-style speech to tear into Democrats, including the House Intelligence Committee Chairman, whom he called "little pencil-necked Adam Schiff."

"The collusion delusion is over. ... This is nothing more than a sinister effort to undermine our historic election victory and to sabotage the will of the American people."
— Trump said, prompting loud and sustained applause

Highlights:

  • Trump doubled down by calling the probe a "witch hunt," adding that Democrats "are on artificial respirators right now. They are getting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation."
  • He took jabs once again at the late-Republican Sen. John McCain over his historic vote against Trump's attempt in 2017 to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
  • He lashed out at the "fake news media," which he claimed have propagated the "hoax" of his collusion with Russia.
Donald Trump