Trump tweets 'Game Over' moments after attorney general's news conference on Mueller report
President Donald Trump did not respond to reporters' shouted questions on the Mueller report as he left the White House Thursday afternoon to spend the Easter weekend at his Mar-a-Lago compound in Florida.
The president often speaks at length on his way to his helicopter but chose not to do so as Washington and the rest of the country continued to parse the complicated facts and findings contained in the special counsel's redacted report released late Thursday morning. Mueller had investigated Russian government interference in the 2016 election, possible collusion by the Trump campaign and whether the president had committed obstruction of justice.
Even though he didn't talk to reporters, on Thursday morning, just moments after Attorney General Bill Barr concluded a news conference laying out his interpretation of Mueller's report ahead of its release to Congress and the public, President Trump took to Twitter with a "Game of Thrones" reference to declare: "Game Over. "
A White House official said the president watched the attorney general's news conference from the White House residence.
Not long after, at a event honoring Wounded Warriors at the White House, Trump said "I'm having a good day, too. It was called no collusion no obstruction.
"There never was by the way and there never will be," he continued.
The president went on to reiterate his call for an investigation into the origins of the probe, which he maintains was started unethically.
"We do have to get to the bottom of these things," he told the audience gathered in the East Room. "This should never happen to another president again, this hoax."
Kellyanne Conway, counselor to the president and one of his fiercest defenders, claimed that Thursday "really is the best day" since Trump was elected.
"I call this a political proctology exam," Conway said. "And we emerged with a clean bill of health."
"The Department of Justice made very clear that every request that was issued was responded to and fulfilled," Conway said. "That should make people feel good about democracy and it should make them feel really great that a campaign that I managed to a successful end did not collude with any Russians. We’re accepting apologies today, too, for anybody who feels the grace in offering them."
Conway said that she spent much of the day with the president and said he is "in a great mood." Conway said Trump spoke with his lawyers, watched the press conference, and met with wounded vets at the White House this morning.
Conway did not directly answer whether she thinks special counsel Mueller should testify before Congress but she noted that the attorney general said: "Sure. You want to call Mr. Mueller to testify, call him to testify."
Trump announced on Wednesday that Barr would be giving the news conference, teasing that there would "strong things" to come out.
"You’ll see a lot of very strong things come out tomorrow. Attorney General Barr is going to be giving a press conference and maybe I’ll do one after that we’ll see," Trump said during a radio interview with WMAL’s “The Larry O’Connor Show.”
