"Russia did not help me."
And by the way, folks, just in case you're, like,
curious—no, Russia did not help me, okay? [Laughter] Russia. I call it
the "Russian hoax." One of the great hoaxes. Actually, that's the thing I
was thinking about. That's the thing that the Democrats did best. They
lost the election, and they didn't know what happened, and they needed
an excuse, so they said "Russia." And then they said, wait a minute,
wait a minute, "Russia and Trump." Honestly, it's the thing they did
best. They did a rotten job of running, but to convince people about
this hoax, that was probably the thing that they did best. But it is one
great hoax. No, Russia did not help me, that I can tell you, okay? Any
Russians in the audience? [Laughter] Are there any Russians in the
audience, please? I don't see too many Russians. I didn't see too many
Russians in Pennsylvania. [Laughter] I didn't see too many Russians.
-- Donald Trump, September 22, 2017
And I have to say, the whole Russian thing is what it's turned out to be. This was the Democrats coming up with an excuse for losing an election. It's an election that's very hard for a Democrat to lose because the Electoral College is set in such a way that it's very hard to lose that election for a Democrat. They lost it. They lost it very badly and very easily.
I mean, you look at the votes; it was 306 to what -- 223 or something. They lost it by a lot. They didn't know what to say, so they made up the whole Russia hoax. Now it's turning out that the hoax has turned around. And you look at what's happened with Russia, and you look at the uranium deal, and you look at the fake dossier. So that's all turned around.
-- Donald Trump, October 12, 2017
