White House denies Trump blamed shooting on Russia probe
White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Tuesday attempted to walk back President Trump’s weekend tweet that the FBI missed a tip about the man who recently opened fire at a Florida high school because the bureau was too focused on the Russia investigation.
When pressed about the tweet at the White House press briefing, Sanders denied that Trump’s tweet blamed the FBI’s mistake on the probe.
“He was speaking not necessarily that that was the cause. I think we all have to be aware that the cause of this was that of a deranged individual that made a decision to take the lives of 17 other people. That is the responsibility of the shooter,” she said.
“He’s making the point we’d like our FBI agencies to not be focused on something that is clearly a hoax, in terms of investigating the Trump campaign.” {mosads}
As part of the investigation into the response to last week’s shooting at a high school in Parkland, Fla., the FBI admitted that it had received a tip in January that the shooter owned guns, wanted to kill people and had been posting “disturbing” content on social media. FBI Director Christopher Wray said in a Friday statement that the information should have been forwarded to the FBI’s Miami field office, but that protocol was not followed.
Trump’s Saturday morning tweet referenced that admission, linking the mistake to the investigation into Russia’s meddling in the 2016 presidential elections.
“Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign – there is no collusion. Get back to the basics and make us all proud!” Trump tweeted on Saturday morning.
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