In a rare and sharply worded rebuttal, former President Barack Obama on Tuesday forcefully rejected President Donald Trump’s assertion that he orchestrated the Trump-Russia investigation, denouncing the claims as “bizarre” and “ridiculous.” The statement, issued through Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush, marked a break from the former president’s usual silence on matters concerning his successor.
“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,” Rodenbush said, according to Fox News. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one.”
The statement came hours after Trump, during a meeting in the Oval Office with the president of the Philippines, alleged that Obama was the “ringleader” of what he termed a manufactured effort to implicate his 2016 campaign in Russian collusion. “President Obama. He started it,” Trump said. “And Biden was there with him, and Comey was there, and Clapper, the whole group was there. Brennan. They were all there in the room right here. This is the room.”
The renewed clash follows the release of declassified documents cited by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who claims the materials contain “overwhelming evidence” that Obama-era officials initiated the Russia probe based on politicized and manipulated intelligence. Gabbard contended that despite intelligence to the contrary, members of the Obama administration advanced the narrative of Russian interference and has since issued a criminal referral to the Department of Justice, though no specific individuals have been publicly named.
“These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,” Rodenbush responded. He emphasized that the declassified materials do not undermine the intelligence community’s consensus that Russia attempted to influence the 2016 election. “Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.” He also pointed to a 2020 bipartisan report from the Senate Intelligence Committee, then chaired by Republican Sen. Marco Rubio, as further validation of that conclusion.
President Trump has also renewed attacks on the Steele dossier, the controversial document compiled by former British intelligence officer Christopher Steele and funded in part by Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign and the Democratic National Committee. “It was President Obama. It was lots of people all over the place,” Trump said. “It took two years to figure that out, but it came out that it was a total fake report — it was made-up fiction — and they used that. The Steele report was a disaster — all lies, all fabrication, all admitted fraud.”
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The truth of the matter is there are more Americans alive today that lived through the entire Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and do believe that Obama was the main architect and leader of the movement to destroy Trumps first term presidency and also the plan to appoint Biden in 2024.
The truth of the matter is there are more Americans alive today that lived through the entire Russia, Russia, Russia hoax and do believe that Obama was the main architect and leader of the movement to destroy Trumps first term presidency. He also led the plan to appoint Biden in 2024.