The biggest political story of the last year has been whether or not Donald Trump was in cahoots with Russia during the 2016 presidential election. While continuing to deny the allegations against him, Trump decided to elaborate further during an interview with the New York Times.

Trump on Russia

When Donald Trump defeated Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton last November, it quickly raised red flags as to why so many polls and media outlets got their predictions wrong. In the weeks that followed, several well-respected news outlets and government agencies reported that not only did Russia hack into the Democratic National Committee, but that they did so with the goal of helping to elect Trump.

As expected, the former host of "The Apprentice" has denied any wrongdoing, labeling the claims against him to be nothing more than "fake news." Despite this, an investigation into Russian interference is ongoing, which is led by special counsel Robert Mueller, who previously was the director of the FBI. These issues and more were discussed during the president's interview with the New York Times on December 28.

While speaking to Michael Schmidt of the New York Times from his golf resort in Palm Beach, Florida, Donald Trump was pressed about the current investigation into Russia and whether or not his campaign has been in cahoots with the Kremlin.

Trump cited a recent TV interview with lawyer Alan Dershowitz who spoke in favor of the talking points coming from the White House. "He said there was no collusion. And he has studied this thing very closely. I’ve seen him a number of times," Trump said.

Donald Trump then went on to claim that even if he did collude with Russia to hack into the election that it wasn't anything illegal.

"There is no collusion, and even if there was, it’s not a crime," Trump stated, before saying that the investigation "looks very bad" for the United States. Not stopping there, Trump even went as far as to say he has total control over the Department of Justice, claiming, "I have absolute right to do what I want to do with the Justice Department."

Twitter reacts

Responding to Donald Trump's comments were many on social media who were quick to give their thoughts.

"Remind me that if I ever get caught robbing a bank, it's not a crime if I don't get to spend the money,' one tweet read.

"This is his '“I didn’t do it but if I had..' moment," another Twitter user wrote.

"Ha! so what you are saying is that there was collusion with Russia," one social media user noted. "Not a crime?? What if Obama had colluded with Russian hackers to win in 2012?" a follow-up tweet stated.

"That's because it's called "conspiracy," not collusion, and conspiracy is a crime," an additional tweet pointed out. As 2017 comes to an end, Donald Trump's popularity with the American people has dropped to an all-time low after his first year in office. In the latest poling, Trump's approval numbers are below 35 percent, with the majority of the country now disapproving of his response to the Russian investigation.
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