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By Lauren Egan
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump claimed “Game Over” Thursday morning just moments after Attorney General William Barr concluded a press conference in which he repeatedly defended the president’s actions, as the country awaited the release of Robert Mueller’s report on Russian interference in the 2016 presidential campaign.
“NO COLLUSION. NO OBSTRUCTION. FOR THE HATERS AND THE RADICAL LEFT DEMOCRATS — GAME OVER,” read the “Game of Thrones”-inflected meme.
The president had spent the morning blasting law enforcement and his political enemies, complaining of “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT” in a flood of tweets. “The Greatest Political Hoax of all time! Crimes were committed by Crooked, Dirty Cops and DNC/The Democrats,” he wrote in the first of nearly a dozen tweets and retweets.
Trump did not directly address the release of the report itself, though he referred to the allegations and the investigation as a “hoax” and “PRESIDENTIAL HARASSMENT.”
The president retweeted a series of videos and articles from Judicial Watch, a conservative organization known for filing Freedom of Information Acts. During the 2016 election, Judicial Watch was a plaintiff in more than 20 lawsuits involving Hillary Clinton.
Clinton seemed to be on Trump’s mind as he awaited the report. He tweeted 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.
White House officials were expected to split up the nearly 400-page report when it is publicly released, each tackling different sections with a particular focus on issues relating to obstruction of justice. Some of the president’s allies have expressed concern about what could be coming later Thursday, hoping that the news will blow over with the coming holiday weekend.
Trump encouraged his millions of Twitter followers to tune in to Attorney General William Barr’s press conference at 9:30 am ET via Fox News or One America News, topping off his morning tweetstorm with a video mashup proclaiming “No Collusion — No Obstruction!”
The president was expected to appear later Thursday morning at an event honoring wounded veterans.