ROBERT MUELLER/RUSSIA INVESTIGATION/TRUMP AS PRESIDENT: “Criticized for picking an acting attorney general who has a history of speaking out against Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation, President Donald Trump launched another attack Thursday [11-15-18] against the special counsel. Claiming that ‘the inner workings of the Mueller investigation are a total mess,’ Trump tweeted that investigators ‘have found no collusion and have gone absolutely nuts. They are screaming and shouting at people, horribly threatening them to come up with the answers they want.’ Trump did not detail his complaints, though he described Mueller’s team as ‘a disgrace to our Nation.’ Lawmakers criticized Trump for appointing aide Matt Whitaker as acting attorney general to replace dismissed Jeff Sessions, a move they said was designed to impede the Russia investigation. Sessions had recused himself from the Mueller investigation. Whitaker is in a position to supervise an inquiry he has repeatedly criticized in interviews over the past year-and-a-half. Whitaker suggested that defunding could stop the Mueller investigation. Lawmakers called on him to recuse himself from the Mueller investigation as Sessions did.”
–David Jackson, “Trump says Mueller team has ‘gone absolutely nuts’,” USA Today, November 15, 2018 5:37 pm