President Donald Trump on Saturday pointed to tweets from Facebook’s advertising executive to attack the media’s coverage of the Russia investigation and again claim that he’s innocent of collusion.
In a series of tweets on Saturday, Trump taunted the “Fake News Media” for not reporting that the “Russian group” that was indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller for interfering in the 2016 election Friday was formed in 2014.
“Long before my run for president. Maybe they knew I was going to run even though I didn’t know!” he said.
Funny how the Fake News Media doesn’t want to say that the Russian group was formed in 2014, long before my run for President. Maybe they knew I was going to run even though I didn’t know!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2018
He then retweeted Facebook’s Vice President of advertising who said the majority of the Russian advertisement spending happened after the election. The Facebook executive claimed that information has gotten little coverage because it doesn’t fall in line with the “main media narrative of Trump and the election.”
“The Fake News Media never fails. Hard to ignore this fact from the Vice President of Facebook Ads, Rob Goldman!” he said.
The Fake News Media never fails. Hard to ignore this fact from the Vice President of Facebook Ads, Rob Goldman! https://t.co/XGC7ynZwYJ
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2018
He then retweeted another post by Goldman, who claimed that after reviewing the advertisements, he felt the main goal of the Russians’ Facebook ad campaign was not to sway the election, but rather divide Americans.
“I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was *NOT* the main goal.”
Rob Goldman
Vice President of Facebook Ads https://t.co/A5ft7cGJkE— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 17, 2018
After Mueller’s team announced it was filing criminal charges against 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities Friday, the White House and Trump released statements claiming the indictment proves there was no collusion between Trump and the Russians.
Mueller’s 37-page indictment details the Russian Internet Research Agency’s concerted efforts – starting in 2014 – to interfere “with the U.S. political and electoral processes, including the presidential election of 2016.”