Elites within the Democratic Party want reports of Russian meddling in the upcoming presidential race to surface now, Trump 2020 National Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said Saturday.
In an interview on "Fox & Friends Weekend" with host Lisa Boothe, McEnany said that reports of Russian interference in The Washington Post were released ahead of the Nevada caucus race in a concerted effort by the Democratic Party to delegitimize President Trump and negatively influence candidates they don't want as the nominee.
"Isn't it convenient that whoever they want to take down they surface this narrative -- and you even have CNN's Jake Tapper pushing back -- about the reporting about President Trump and the briefing and now Bernie Sanders pushing back against The Washington Post," she told Boothe.
"It's really incredible that they think after a three-year investigation, $40 million spent, and [the] exoneration of President Trump, that their winning compelling message to take down President Trump is Russia collusion," McEnany added.
"It just shows that they are bereft of ideas. This is a pathetic party that has nothing to offer the American people except Russia," she stated.
The Post wrote Friday that U.S. intelligence officials have determined Moscow is attempting to interfere in the race on behalf of both the president and frontrunner Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
Trump took to Twitter and slammed the media, singling out MSNBC -- which he called "MSDNC" -- and CNN for grouping Sanders among others as "Russian Sympathizers."
"MSDNC (Comcast Slime), @CNN and others of the Fake Media, have now added Crazy Bernie to the list of Russian Sympathizers, along with @TulsiGabbard & Jill Stein (of the Green Party), both agents of Russia, they say," Trump wrote, "But now they report President Putin wants Bernie (or me) to win."
On Saturday morning he warned Democrats in the "Great State of Nevada" -- which he predicted he would win in November -- to be "careful of Russia, Russia, Russia."
"According to Corrupt politician Adam 'Shifty' Schiff, they are pushing for Crazy Bernie Sanders to win. Vote!"
"I don't care, frankly, who [Russian President Vladimir] Putin wants to be president," Sanders said in a statement following the article's release. "My message to Putin is clear: stay out of American elections, and as president I will make sure that you do."
Ahead of a rally Friday in California, Sanders was questioned by reporters about the news, saying in a video posted on Twitter by a CNN reporter he was briefed on the Russian interference attempts "about a month ago."
When questioned as to why the news of the briefing is only coming out now, Sanders replied: "I’ll let you guess," adding that it was "one day before the Nevada caucus."
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Boothe asked McEnany if Democrats and the media are trying to de-legitimize the president.
"That's been their goal since day one -- since before he was elected; there had already been a Democrat Party official talking about impeachment. The day he was inaugurated there was a Washington Post headline that the quest for impeachment has begun," McEnany replied.
"Delegitimizing the president and taking away the vote of the American people, importantly, has been the goal of the left and American people have seen through it," she concluded.
Fox News' Alex Pappas, Andrew Craft, Joseph A. Wulfsohn and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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