White House: Trump Is Lashing Out At Mueller Because He’s Frustrated

White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday defended the President’s weekend attacks against special counsel Robert Mueller. 

Trump attacked Mueller by name for the first time over the weekend on his Twitter account, part of a string of tweets that lasted several days.

At a White House press briefing, one reporter asked about Rep. Trey Gowdy’s (R-SC) comment over the weekend, addressed to Trump’s lawyer (though the reporter incorrectly said it was addressed to Trump): “If you have an innocent client, Mr. Dowd, act like it.” 

“Look, the President has been very clear about the fact that there was no collusion between his campaign and any other entity,” Sanders responded. “However, to pretend like going through this absurd process for over a year would not bring frustration seems a little bit ridiculous.” 

She added that members of Congress wouldn’t like it “if they had been accused of taking their seat in Congress by doing something nefarious when they hadn’t, particularly if it had went on for more than a year into their time in office.” 

“My guess is they would be more than anxious to push back and certainly would defend themselves as the president has clearly done in this situation and has since day one,” Sanders said. 

Later, a reporter asked what was “behind” Trump’s tweets attacking Mueller.

“Clearly, we have not been shy about the fact that there is frustration of this process,” Sanders said. “We would like it to end quickly and soon and the President has contended since day one and will continue to do so, that there was absolutely no collusion between his campaign and any outside force or country and so I don’t understand why it’s hard for anyone to process.” 

“If you had been attacked mercilessly and continuously day in, day out, every single second while you’re trying to work hard to do good things for this country,” she continued, “and literally every day you wake up to an onslaught of people saying that you’re there because of reasons that are completely false, that’s frustrating and certainly I think fair for him to be frustrated.”