Trump: Sanders would have been my opponent if Clinton hadn’t cheated

President Trump continued his attacks on 2016 Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton on Friday.

The president claimed on Twitter that supporters of her primary opponent, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), should be outraged over Clinton’s “theft” of the primary.

In a series of tweets posted as the president departs on a major trip to several Asian nations, Trump attacked Clinton over claims from former interim Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairwoman Donna Brazile that the DNC was under Clinton’s control months before the primary began.

“Bernie Sanders supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete theft of the Dem primary by Crooked Hillary!” Trump tweeted Friday morning.

“I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating,” he added. “I was right.”

Bernie Sanders supporters have every right to be apoplectic of the complete theft of the Dem primary by Crooked Hillary!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

I always felt I would be running and winning against Bernie Sanders, not Crooked H, without cheating, I was right.

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 3, 2017

Trump’s tweets come just days after his own pollsters admitted that Sanders would likely have defeated Trump during the general election if he had won the Democratic primary.

{mosads}

Brazile was named interim chairwoman after former DNC chairwoman Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) resigned in July 2016 over allegations that the party had favored Clinton during the primary.

In an explosive excerpt from Brazile’s book published by Politico, the former DNC head called Clinton’s arrangement with the DNC “unethical.”

“The funding arrangement … was not illegal, but it sure looked unethical,” Brazile wrote.

“If the fight had been fair, one campaign would not have control of the party before the voters had decided which one they wanted to lead. This was not a criminal act, but as I saw it, it compromised the party’s integrity.”

Trump’s tweets come just hours after he said that the Justice Department should open an investigation of the DNC over the claims made in Brazile’s book. Earlier Friday, Trump wrote that the American public “deserves” to see Hillary Clinton be targeted by the FBI.

“People are angry. At some point the Justice Department, and the FBI, must do what is right and proper,” Trump tweeted. “The American public deserves it!”

Trump has frequently used stories about Clinton’s alleged “theft” of the Democratic primary as well as her dealings at the State Department as a counter to what he considers negative media attention.