Donald Trump accuses former president Barak Obama
Donald Trump accused former president Barack Obama and others of conspiring against him, calling it “treason” and declaring: “It’s time to go after people,” Â Africanews reported on the 23rd of July by
On July 22nd, after meeting with the President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, Trump listed to reporters outside of the Oval Office, Hillary Clinton, Obama, former FBI Director James Comey, former Director of National Intelligence John Brennan, and others of plotting against him in an attempt to “rig the election.”
At the Oval Office, Trump said, “After what they did to me, whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people,” repeating that Obama and other officials had engaged in treason.
These claims were not claims that were made for the first time by Trump; however, he delivered these statements during a period in which administration officials were utilising power and tools of the federal government to investigate those that Trump criticised. Specifically, those who had been involved in investigating Russia’s interference in the 2016 election.
Trump’s outburst was due to the release of a new report from Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, that showed Trump’s administration’s latest attempt to revise the original history of the Russia investigation.
The report released on the July 18th, minimised the extent of Russian interference in the 2016 elections by highlighting Obama’s administration emails knew that Russia had not hacked state voting systems to change votes for Trump.
However, Obama’s Democratic administration never claimed that Russia interfered in the election. Instead, it revealed other forms of interference such as a massive hack-and-leak operation of Democratic emails, carried out by Russian intelligence through WikiLeaks and a secret influence campaign using fake social media accounts to manipulate public opinion and create division.
Democrats quickly discredited the report as factually incorrect and politically motivated.
Russia’s interference in the 2016 has been well documented by throughout investigations, including special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe and a comprehensive 2020 report from the Senate Intelligence Committee, which was led at the time by Republican Senator Marco Rubio who is now serving as Trump’s secretary of state.
Africa News, Maghrebi.org
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