US President Donald Trump told supporters at a rally that he had vanquished a corrupt group of Democrats, the news media and the Washington elite, who tried to "nullify" his "historic" election victory by painting him as an "agent of Russia".
"The collusion delusion is over," The New York Times quoted the President as saying.
This was his first rally since Special Counsel Robert Mueller wrapped up his the 22-month investigation and found no evidence of collusion between the Trump's presidential election campaign and the Russian government.
"The Democrats need to decide whether they will continue to defraud the public with ridiculous b******t," Trump said during his 22-minute speech.
In vilifying his opponents, Trump was not troubled by the fact that the 300-plus-page report by Mueller is yet to be released, or that Attorney General William P. Barr, in his summary of Mueller's findings, stipulated that the report did not exonerate the President, even if it did not find him guilty of conspiracy or of obstructing justice.
"It's interesting," Trump said. "Robert Mueller was a God to the Democrats. He was a God to them until he said 'no collusion'. They don't like him so much now."
He called the Russia investigation "an extravagant waste of time" and underlined the need to "drain the swamp", and he celebrated his cheering supporters over what he described as the faithless elites in Washington.
"I'm President and they're not... They came, and they didn't even know these people existed," Trump said of the elites.
"I have a better education than them. I'm smarter than them. I went to better schools than them... Much more beautiful house. Much more beautiful everything."
Trump also went after the "fake news" media, celebrating what he claimed was a sharp decline in ratings for CNN and MSNBC after the Mueller findings were released, and predicting they would never regain their credibility.
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