"Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter," Trump tweeted just after 11 p.m. ET on Saturday. "This is not acceptable. They are spending too much time trying to prove Russian collusion with the Trump campaign — there is no collusion."

President Donald Trump on Saturday night appeared to blame the Florida school shooting that left 17 people dead this week on the FBI's Russia investigation.

Very sad that the FBI missed all of the many signals sent out by the Florida school shooter. This is not acceptable… https://t.co/yvvTEmad2e

"Get back to the basics and make us all proud!" he added.

The president was referring to the FBI's admission earlier this week that it dropped the ball on a tip that the bureau received in January about the suspected shooter in Wednesday's mass shooting, Nikolas Cruz.



FBI officials have said that agents did not follow protocol and that the tip was never referred to the FBI's Miami field office, which could have pointed the bureau toward Cruz prior to the Valentine's Day shooting.

In his tweet Saturday night, however, the president seemed to suggest that the lapse in procedure was somehow a result of the FBI being distracted by the probe into Russia's influence on the 2016 election.

Trump appeared to be repeating a talking point that has been circulated by right-wing and alt-right figures this week, including conservative Fox News commentators that have suggested that FBI resources were thinned by the Russia probe.

Of course, the FBI employs about 35,000 people across 56 field offices around the country. And FBI officials said the issue in the case of the Florida school shooting was the result of a failure to refer the tip to the bureau's Miami office, rather than a lack of personnel.

In the meantime, Attorney General Jeff Sessions has ordered a review of how the Department of Justice and the FBI handle such tips.