President Trump predictably railed against the Justice Department Inspector General’s report focused on the origins of the Russia probe released Monday.
During a roundtable on school choice at the White House, Trump took the opportunity to criticize the inspector general’s report by calling it a “disgrace” and “far worse than I would’ve ever thought possible.”
Trump had a number of negative adjectives at the ready to describe the report.
“The IG report just came out and I was just briefed on it. It’s a disgrace what has happened with respect to the things that were done to our country — should never again happen to another president,” Trump said. “It is incredible, far worse than I would’ve ever thought possible, and it’s is an embarrassment to our country. It’s dishonest. It’s everything that a lot of people thought it would be except far worse.”
The IG report concluded that the Russia probe was opened properly and that political bias did not taint the launch of the investigation. The report did, however, acknowledge errors regarding the FISA warrant to surveil former Trump campaign foreign policy aide Carter Page.
After mentioning that he is “going to get some very detailed briefings,” Trump insisted that the release of the report is a “very sad day.”
“It’s a very sad day when I see that, a very sad day when a lot of people see that,” Trump said. “It was concocted and you say what you want, that was probably something that has never happened in the history of our country.”
After asking White House aides Pam Bondi and Kellyanne Conway for their thoughts on their report — who said that “the American people should be terrified” and that it was an “intrusive investigation,” respectively — Trump added that he is looking forward to U.S. Attorney John Durham’s investigate-the-investigators report because he believes that the original Russia probe was an attempt to overthrow the government.
“This was an overthrow of government. This was an attempted overthrow — people were in on it and they got caught, they got caught red-handed and I look forward to the Durham report which is coming out in the not-too-distant future,” Trump said. “It’s got its own information, plus, plus, plus, and it’s an incredible thing that happened and we’re lucky we caught him. I think I’m going to put this down as one of our great achievements because what we found and what we saw never, ever should this happen again in our country.”
Trump 2020 campaign manager Brad Parscale responded to the report by arguing that it “confirms significant misconduct and wrongdoing by the Obama-Biden FBI.”
“This report confirms significant misconduct and wrongdoing by the Obama-Biden FBI. The Clinton campaign and the DNC paid for foreign sources to manufacture fake dirt on President Trump and his campaign, resulting in the now-debunked Steele Dossier,” Parscale said in a statement Monday. “These politically motivated accusations were used to justify the surveillance of a U.S. presidential campaign by the FBI, which falsified information and concealed evidence that didn’t fit their narrative. Democrats and the media weaponized this as part of their Russia Collusion Hoax for more than two years and they are still at it today.”
Watch Trump’s remarks below:
Trump: DOJ IG report is "far worse than I would've ever thought possible" and "an embarrassment to our country." pic.twitter.com/qWXcY3Fa80
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 9, 2019
Trump says he looks forward to the Durham report pic.twitter.com/649FfGUB2j
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) December 9, 2019
