Former President Barack Obama’s office issued a rare response Tuesday, after President Donald Trump accused his predecessor of sedition and rigging the 2016 and 2020 elections.
Obama’s spokesman, Patrick Rodenbush, said: “In respect for the office of the presidency, our office typically does not respond to the daily, baseless attacks and misinformation coming from the White House. But these baseless claims are so unfounded and a pathetic attempt to distract from his own failings that they warrant a response.” “The incoherent rhetoric is baseless and a pathetic attempt to distract from his own failings.”
When asked by reporters about infamous sex offender Jeffrey Epstein on Tuesday, Trump pivoted to what he called Obama’s “criminal activity.” Trump said, according to NBC News, “After what they’ve done – and whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to confront everybody. Obama got caught red-handed.” “What they’ve done in 2016 and 2020 is very criminal. It’s criminal at the highest level. So that’s really what you should be talking about.”
Trump was referring to claims by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard and CIA Director John Ratcliffe on social media and television that officials from the Obama administration manipulated intelligence and conspired to undermine the legitimacy of Trump’s 2016 election victory.
However, Rodenbush stressed that the Trump administration was misrepresenting the documents they were using to support their claims. “Nothing in the documents that were released last week undermine the widely accepted conclusion that Russia sought to interfere in the 2016 election but did not succeed in manipulating any votes. These findings were affirmed in the 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio,” Rodenbush said.
Meanwhile, the Senate report did affirm Russian actions. “The Committee’s bipartisan report found that Russia’s goal in its unprecedented hack-and-leak operations that targeted the U.S. in 2016, among other motives, was to help the Trump campaign. Candidate Trump and his campaign responded to this threat by embracing, encouraging, and exploiting Russia’s outreach,” it stated.
Democrats argued the administration was attempting to rewrite history to appease Trump. Pete Aguilar, chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, told NBC News, “This is just another example of the DNI attempting to game the records, rewrite history, and erode confidence in the intelligence agencies that she’s supposed to be leading.”
Aguilar added, “They’ll release anything if it helps them get another day or two from not talking about Epstein or letting the angry mob talk about Epstein.”
The Russia investigation is just one of many old grievances Trump has dredged up in recent days, facing backlash from MAGA supporters over his handling of the Epstein case.
