Former U.S. president Barack Obama has shut down claims that he attempted to stage a coup after President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, without providing evidence, that Obama led a campaign falsely tying Trump to Russia to undermine his 2016 presidential run.
In a rare move, Obama’s office issued a strongly worded rebuttal to Trump’s allegations after the president told reporters that his predecessor attempted to overthrow his presidency and that Obama was guilty of “treason.”
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said on behalf of the former president.
“But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
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President Barack Obama and president-elect Donald Trump arrive for the 58th presidential inauguration in Washington, D.C., on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.
PhotoScott Applewhite / Getty Images
Trump has attacked Obama in the past. Still, the president, since assuming office in January, has not gone so far as to accuse the former president and his entire administration of committing a crime.
Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office during a meeting with the president of the Philippines on Tuesday, Trump piggybacked on comments from his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, who on Friday threatened to criminally charge Obama and his administration over intelligence suggesting they had conspired against Trump.
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She declassified documents and said the information she was releasing showed a “treasonous conspiracy,” claims that Democrats say are false and politically motivated.
“It’s there, he’s guilty. This was treason,” Trump said, without offering proof.
“They tried to steal the election, they tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever imagined, even in other countries.”
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Previous reports directly contradict the Trump administration’s allegations and suggest that Russia used a mole and other tools to try and sway the 2016 election in Trump’s favour.
A 2020 bipartisan inquest by the Senate intelligence committee found that Russia used Republican political operative Paul Manafort, the WikiLeaks website and others to try to influence the 2016 election to help Trump’s campaign, albeit unsuccessfully.
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Rodenbush referenced the 2020 report in his defence of the former Democratic president.
“Nothing in the document issued last week [by Gabbard] undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes,” he said.
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According to Reuters, Trump has frequently labelled the findings a hoax, a tactic he often employs to quash unfavourable narratives about his conduct.
In recent days, the president reposted on Truth Social a fake AI-generated video depicting Obama being handcuffed and arrested in the Oval Office, coupled with a series of clips of former Democratic leaders, including Joe Biden, saying “no one is above the law.”
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Similarly, after breaking a promise to release unseen documents related to Jeffrey Epstein — including a roster of the former financier’s wealthy clients — the Trump administration said there was no such list, but then blamed the existence of the highly publicized files on Democrats, claiming evidence against Epstein had been compiled by Trump’s political foes in an attempt to undermine him in a “hoax”-style campaign.
In a statement posted on his Truth Social account, Trump wrote, “Why are we giving publicity to Files written by Obama, Crooked Hillary, Comey, Brennan, and the Losers and Criminals of the Biden Administration?”
“They created the Epstein Files,” he wrote.
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Trump, asked in the Oval Office about Epstein, quickly pivoted into an attack on Obama and Hillary Clinton.
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“The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold,” Trump said.
Trump suggested action would be taken against Obama and his former officials, calling the Russia investigation a treasonous act and the former president guilty of “trying to lead a coup.”
— With files from Reuters
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