"Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing," President Donald Trump wrote on Twitter. | Evan Vucci/AP Photo Trump: Russia is 'laughing their asses off'

President Donald Trump tweeted Sunday morning that Russia is "laughing their asses off" and has "succeeded beyond their wildest dreams" due to the continuing investigations into its interference in the 2016 presidential election.

"If it was the GOAL of Russia to create discord, disruption and chaos within the U.S. then, with all of the Committee Hearings, Investigations and Party hatred, they have succeeded beyond their wildest dreams," the president wrote on Twitter. "They are laughing their asses off in Moscow. Get smart America!"


Trump also sought to push back on reports that he has never explicitly agreed with the U.S. intelligence community and others who have said for months now that Russia meddled in the election.

"I never said Russia did not meddle in the election, I said 'it may be Russia, or China or another country or group, or it may be a 400 pound genius sitting in bed and playing with his computer,'" the president wrote on Twitter two days after special counsel Robert Mueller and his team announced the indictment of Russia nationals for meddling in the 2016 election.

He added: "The Russian 'hoax' was that the Trump campaign colluded with Russia — it never did!"

Trump's tweet pointed to an exchange during the first presidential debate in which he questioned the U.S. intelligence committee's early finding that Russia was behind a hack of the Democratic National Committee and the private emails of John Podesta, Hillary Clinton's campaign chairman.

"I don't think anybody knows it was Russia that broke into the DNC," he said at the time. "She's saying Russia, Russia, Russia, but I don't — maybe it was. I mean, it could be Russia, but it could also be China," Trump said then. "It could also be lots of other people. It also could be somebody sitting on their bed that weighs 400 pounds, OK? You don't know who broke in to DNC."

As president, Trump continued his trend of begrudgingly avoiding an explicit public backing of the idea that Russia interfered in the election, including emphasizing that he pressed Russian President Vladimir Putin about the subject and that the former KGB agent "vehemently denied it."

In later tweets, Trump returned to another one of his favorite foils in Rep. Adam Schiff of California, the top Democrat on the House Intelligence Committee, one of the Capitol Hill panels tasked with digging into the scope of Russia's actions.

"Finally, Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election," the president wrote on Twitter. "He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!"

POLITICO previously reported that as early as 2014, the Obama administration was warned about Russia's attempts to interfere with Western democracies, including the United States. In October 2016, the Obama administration accused the Russian government of election-year hacking. "We believe, based on the scope and sensitivity of these efforts, that only Russia's senior-most officials could have authorized these activities," said Jeh Johnson, Obama's director of homeland security.

Schiff and other Democrats have criticized Obama and his team for not being more forceful in their response.

"I think that others around the world watched that and determined that cyber is a cost-free intervention," Schiff said Friday during an interview with NBC's Andrea Mitchell at the Council on Foreign Relations in New York.