WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump appeared to admit for the first time Thursday – intentionally or not – that Russia helped his election in 2016.

Minutes later, he rowed back on that assertion.

Early Thursday, before departing for Colorado, where he delivered the commencement address to the United States Air Force Academy, Trump posted a tweet arguing that Democrats have made Russian interference a central issue of his presidency.

“And now Russia has disappeared because I had nothing to do with Russia helping me to get elected," Trump wrote. "It was a crime that didn’t exist.”

Minutes later, as he boarded Marine One for the trip to Colorado, Trump returned to his more standard talking points on the issue.

"No, Russia did not help me get elected," he told reporters.

Trump has long denied that Russian interference in the 2016 election affected the outcome of the election. In the past, he has swung between denying and haltingly acknowledging that Russian attempted to interfere, despite the assessments of intelligence agencies.

Trump’s tweet and follow-up remarks came a day after special counsel Robert Mueller said there was “insufficient evidence" of a broader conspiracy between the Trump campaign and Russia to interfere in the 2016 campaign. But Mueller pointedly said his office did not take a position on whether the president criminally obstructed his investigation.

A day after taking a low-key approach to Mueller's remarks, Trump embraced a more critical tone on Thursday. He declared Mueller "a true never Trumper" and denounced Democrats who have called for impeachment.

Saying "I don't see how" he could be impeached, Trump said, "It's a dirty filthy disgusting word ... it's a giant presidential harassment."

Social media users quickly pounced on Trump's remarks in the tweet.

"This morning the president wrote that Russia helped him 'get elected' and referred to himself in the third person," tweeted Walter Shaub, former director of U.S. Office of Government Ethics.

Trump said Democrats and the "Fake News Media" are now focused on the obstruction claims, which he described as fighting back against an unfair investigation.

Referring to himself in the third person, Trump said his critics "say he fought back against this phony crime that didn’t exist, this horrendous false acquisition, and he shouldn’t fight back, he should just sit back and take it. Could this be Obstruction? No, Mueller didn’t find Obstruction either. Presidential Harassment."

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