It seems like President Donald Trump is doing a bit of deflecting.

Early Friday afternoon POTUS made a return to Twitter in the midst of the ever-growing Attorney General Jeff Sessions–Russia scandal. His tweet, though, wasn’t exactly dealing with the AG’s alleged association with Russia as much as another politician’s.

We should start an immediate investigation into @SenSchumer and his ties to Russia and Putin. A total hypocrite! pic.twitter.com/Ik3yqjHzsA — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 3, 2017

President Trump used the microblogging platform to slam Senator Chuck Schumer for his alleged ties to Putin and Russia, going as far as to call the Democrat from New York a “total hypocrite.”

The photo that the Commander in Chief attached to his tweet is one of Sen. Schumer and Russian President Vladimir Putin. Taken in 2003, the photo shows the two politicians sharing doughnuts during Putin’s visit to New York trip to attend the opening of a Russian gas company’s station.

The attack from the president came hours after Schumer demanded “We must evaluate the scope of Russia’s interference in our election.”

The bottom line is we have an obligation to get to the truth. We must evaluate the scope of Russia’s interference in our election. — Chuck Schumer (@SenSchumer) March 2, 2017

It would seem, though, that President Trump wasn’t the first person to make this accusation (or tweet, as it were.)

.@SenSchumer– do it over a donut and coffee. pic.twitter.com/BvnYukwtXs — Dan Scavino Jr. (@DanScavino) March 3, 2017

Look closely enough and you’ll notice that Assistant to the President and Director of Social Media Dan Scavino Jr. posted the above tweet at 7:13am, while President Trump posted his at 12:54pm.

Earlier still (almost an entire day earlier!) is this tweet from InfoWars! Editor-at-Large Paul Joseph Watson.

Chuck Schumer must resign immediately! The horror! pic.twitter.com/Ramgb4gOB9 — Paul Joseph Watson (@PrisonPlanet) March 3, 2017

While one would expect the Director of Social Media to pick up some things from, well, social media, President Trump has a track record of repurposing the tweets and stories of others. This only seems to reiterate the fact that very few of the opinion-based tweets (and, in some cases, on-camera remarks) coming from @realDonaldTrump are originating from him.

UPDATE – 1:40pm: Senator Schumer has responded to the president’s comments.

[image via screengrab]

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