Mercedes Schlapp, White House director of strategic communications, said Thursday that President Donald Trump is “moving on” after special counsel Robert Mueller closed his investigation, urging the rest of the country to do the same. Minutes earlier, however, Trump’s tweets about “presidential harassment” made it clear he had no intention of focusing on anything else.
Schlapp’s comments came a day after Mueller gave a brief press conference at which he made it clear that his report was anything but the exoneration Trump and his administration had claimed. Ignoring Mueller’s remarks, Schlapp repeated the same widely debunked talking points about the special counsel’s inability to charge Trump with any crimes while he is president, claiming “the case is closed.”
“The investigation is closed. And he is moving on. And in essence, that is a very straight direct message that we all need to move on,” Schlapp told Fox News.
She then demanded that congressional Democrats stop doing their oversight duty of investigating the president, claiming that Trump was focused instead on his proposed trade deal with Mexico and Canada, a solution on the border crisis, the economy, and strong global relations.
“That’s what the president is focused on, on while the Democrats want to continue to push endless investigations, endless focus on just trying to attack this president — because they refuse to accept the results of the Mueller report and they refuse to move on.”
Mueller’s report, in fact, outlines at least 10 instances of possible obstruction involving the president, which have been the catalyst for further congressional probes by House Democrats. The special counsel’s investigation has also led to several outside investigations involving Trump and his businesses.
The claim that Trump is focused on more important matters than fallout from the Mueller probe is highly dubious. Last week, he blew up bipartisan negotiations on infrastructure, saying that he would not do anything to improve the nation’s crumbling roads and bridges until congressional Democrats stopped doing oversight.
Trump has also demanded an investigation into the origins of the Mueller probe, and his handpicked Attorney General William Barr has ordered the Justice Department to comply.
“Today, at the request and recommendation of the Attorney General of the United States, President Donald J. Trump directed the intelligence community to quickly and fully cooperate with the Attorney General’s investigation into surveillance activities….
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
….Today’s action will help ensure that all Americans learn the truth about the events that occurred, and the actions that were taken, during the last Presidential election and will restore confidence in our public institutions.” @PressSec
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 24, 2019
Trump’s tweets in recent days have focused more on the investigations than any other topic — since May 23, nearly two dozen of them have been griping about Mueller and oversight.
On Thursday morning, he once again turned his sights on the investigation, claiming Mueller had wasted his time looking into a “phony crime that didn’t exist,” and calling the probe “presidential harassment.”
….say he fought back against this phony crime that didn’t exist, this horrendous false accusation, and he shouldn’t fight back, he should just sit back and take it. Could this be Obstruction? No, Mueller didn’t find Obstruction either. Presidential Harassment!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 30, 2019
Minutes after Schlapp’s interview Thursday morning, Trump addressed reporters, complaining about Mueller’s investigation.
“The whole thing is a scam. It is a giant presidential harassment,” he claimed. “And honestly, I hope it goes down as one of my greatest achievements. Because I have exposed corruption, I’ve exposed corruption like nobody knew existed.”