President Donald Trump slammed the ‘fake news media’ for not reporting Facebook ads vice president’s claims that the 13 Russians indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller Friday weren’t trying to sway the 2016 election.
In a barrage of angry tweets on Saturday afternoon, Trump used Rob Goldman’s words that the goal of the Russian influence operation was to sow fear and hatred in the United States, dividing citizens.
Goldman claims that the Russians weren’t actually trying to sway the election, and that was just a consequence of their attempt to polarize American views. Facebook verified the authenticity of his comments.
Trump later referenced those claims on Twitter, quoting him and saying ‘The Fake News Media never fails,’ clearly frustrated that no major media outlets had reported on Goldman’s post yet.
His tweet storm comes just one day after Special Counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russians credited with the fake ads to influence the outcome of the 2016 presidential election.
President Donald Trump (pictured Friday) slammed the ‘fake news media’ for not reporting Facebook ads Vice President’s claims that the 13 Russians indicted by Special Counsel Robert Mueller Friday weren’t trying to sway the 2016 election
Trump later referenced those claims on Twitter, quoting him and saying ‘The Fake News Media never fails,’ clearly frustrated that no major media outlets had reported on Goldman’s post yet
‘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, he wrote.
‘Maybe they knew I was going to run even though I didn’t know!’
Goldman said the main goal wasn’t to influence the elections because, after reviewing all of the fake ads, he said 56 percent weren’t displayed on Facebook until after the November 8 election.
‘I have seen all of the Russian ads and I can say very definitively that swaying the election was NOT the main goal,’ Goldman tweeted.
People on Twitter think Goldman might have been suggesting the motive was more long-term than just the single election.
Goldman followed up later to clarify that he did not mean to suggest that swaying the election wasn’t a goal at all, just that it was not the primary goal.
‘The Russian campaign was certainly in favor of Trump,’ Goldman wrote. ‘The point is that the misinformation campaign is ongoing and must be addressed.’
Trump either did not see this follow up tweet or chose not to ignore it when crafting his Twitter posts.
He also referenced a statement made by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a news conference earlier Saturday.
Rosenstein claimed: ‘There is no allegation in the indictment that any American was a knowing participant in this illegal activity. There is no allegation in the indictment that the charged conduct altered the outcome of the 2016 election.’
In a barrage of angry tweets on Saturday afternoon, Trump used Rob Goldman’s words that the goal of the Russian influence operation was to sow fear and hatred in the United States, dividing citizens
He also referenced a statement made by Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein at a news conference earlier Saturday
The president’s stream of posts came just hours after the president’s National Security Adviser HR McMaster said Russia’s meddling in the election is ‘beyond dispute,’ in a statement Saturday morning conceding the results of Mueller’s probe.
McMaster’s comments at the Munich Security Conference directly contradicted those made by the US Russia Foreign Minister, who labeled them ‘juts babble’ moments earlier.
He said the evidence that there was interference ‘is now incontrovertible’ and he credited Mueller’s investigation and the sensational, long-awaited indictment for bringing it to the surface.
‘As you can see with the FBI indictment, the evidence is now really incontrovertible and available in the public domain.’
Laughing off the notion that the US could work with the Kremlin on the issue of cyber security in the future, he said:
Goldman followed up later to clarify that he did not mean to suggest that swaying the election wasn’t a goal at all, just that it was not the primary goal
‘I’m surprised there are any Russian cyber experts available based on how active most of them have been undermining our democracies in the West.
‘We would love to have a cyber dialogue when Russia is sincere about curtailing its sophisticated form of espionage.’
Moments earlier on the same stage, foreign minister Sergey Lavrov had dismissed the indictment and its allegations.
‘I have no response. You can publish anything, and we see those indictments multiplying, the statements multiplying,’ he said. ‘Until we see the facts, everything else is just blabber.’
He said there was an ‘irrational myth’ that Russia was threatening the West, and said: ‘traces’ of it ‘are found everywhere from Brexit to the Catalan referendum.’
Both were responding to the 37-page indictment returned on Friday by a grand jury which charges 13 Russian individuals and three companies with a series of crimes relating to the interference.
Among those indicted are a businessman nicknamed Putin’s ‘chef’, a woman who acted as a spy for the organization to come to the US in 2014 to gather intel and a computer whiz who used servers to hide ‘troll factory’s location’.
Mueller’s office made the stunning announcement on Friday, saying that the defendants laid the groundwork for targeting U.S. elections in 2014 – and that by mid-2016 they were actively ‘supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump … and disparaging Hillary Clinton’
The 13 Russian nationals accused of meddling in the election worked for the Internet research Agency – what has now been branded a ‘troll factory’ (pictured is the building in St Petersburg where the ‘troll factory’ was housed)
Mueller’s office made the stunning announcement on Friday, saying that the defendants laid the groundwork for targeting U.S. elections in 2014 – and that by mid-2016 they were actively ‘supporting the presidential campaign of then-candidate Donald J. Trump … and disparaging Hillary Clinton.’
The 13 Russian nationals accused of meddling in the election worked for the Internet research Agency – what has now been branded a ‘troll factory.’
Details about the ominous organization floated around in the international media before Friday’s charges were brought, but never before has there been such insight into the operation.
It is headed up by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin’s ‘personal chef’ who gained access to Russia’s political power players through his luxury restaurants in St Petersburg in the mid 2000s.
In 2012, he landed a lucrative contract to provide the country’s military soldiers with meals. It only lasted a year but was rumored to be worth around $1.2billion.
At the center of the indictment against 13 Russian nationals accused of meddling in the US presidential election is the Internet Research Agency, the ‘troll factory’ where they all worked.
Details about the ominous organization floated around in the international media before Friday’s charges were brought, but never before has there been such insight into the operation.
It is headed up by businessman Yevgeny Prigozhin, Putin’s ‘personal chef’ who gained access to Russia’s political power players through his luxury restaurants in St Petersburg in the mid 2000s.
In 2012, he landed a lucrative contract to provide the country’s military soldiers with meals. It only lasted a year but was rumored to be worth around $1.2billion