United States President Donald Trump has called for the arrest of former President Barack Obama, repeating unproven claims that the Democrat’s administration intentionally misled the public in its assessment of the 2016 election.
At Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, Trump accused Obama, a longtime rival, of helming a criminal conspiracy.
“ The leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump told the media.
“ He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever even imagined, even in other countries.”
President Trump has a history of spreading election-related falsehoods, including by denying his own defeat in the 2020 race.
But since taking office for a second term, he has sought to settle scores over his victory in the 2016 presidential contest, which raised questions about Russia’s alleged attempts to influence the outcome.
In 2016, in the waning days of Obama’s second term, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) concluded that Russia had attempted to sway the results in Trump’s favour. Obama responded to the allegations by expelling Russian diplomats and slapping sanctions on the country.
An intelligence community assessment in 2017 later offered details into the Russian influence campaign.
But in 2019, a special counsel’s report found there was not enough evidence to support the claim that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia. It did, however, once again underscore the government’s assertion that Russia had interfered in the election “in sweeping and systematic fashion”.
Trump, however, has described such probes as politicised attacks designed to undermine his authority.
In Tuesday’s appearance, Trump cited recent claims from his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to assert wrongdoing on the part of the Obama administration.
“They caught President Obama absolutely cold,” Trump said. “They tried to rig the election, and they got caught, and there should be very severe consequences for that.”
Tulsi Gabbard renews Obama attacks
Trump’s latest remarks about what he calls the “Russia hoax” come just days after Gabbard released a press release about the subject on July 18.
In the statement, Gabbard’s office asserts she “revealed overwhelming evidence” that “President Obama and his national security cabinet members manufactured and politicised intelligence to lay the groundwork for what was essentially a years-long coup against President Trump”.
Gabbard followed that release up with a series of social media posts, some indicating she had pressed the Department of Justice (DOJ) for criminal charges against Obama. She has called the scrutiny on the 2016 election a “treasonous conspiracy”.
“Their goal was to usurp President Trump and subvert the will of the American people,” Gabbard wrote.
“No matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law,” she continued. “We are turning over all documents to the DOJ for criminal referral.”
However, the veracity of Gabbard’s report has been widely questioned. Critics have pointed out that she appears to confuse different conclusions.
Gabbard, for instance, has highlighted internal government documents from the 2016 election period that indicate Russia was not using cyberattacks to alter the overall vote count.
But the published 2017 intelligence report did not assert that Russia was attempting to hack the election. Instead, it highlighted ways that Russia tried to influence public sentiment through disinformation.
Russia’s campaign included online propaganda, the dissemination of hacked data, and targeted messaging about individuals and entities involved in the election.
Other investigations related to the matter, including a separate Department of Justice inspector general report and a Republican-led Senate investigation, all supported that Russia did indeed seek to influence the 2016 election.
Backlash against Gabbard’s statements
But Gabbard’s argument that the scrutiny over the 2016 election was criminal has prompted uproar, particularly from the Democratic Party.
Senator Mark Warner of Virginia even questioned whether Gabbard should remain in her role as director of national intelligence.
“It is sadly not surprising that DNI Gabbard, who promised to depoliticize the intelligence community, is once again weaponizing her position to amplify the president’s election conspiracy theories,” he wrote on social media.
Obama himself released a statement through his office, calling Gabbard’s claims “bizarre”.
“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,” it said.
Some critics have speculated that Trump may be using the years-old question of Russian election interference to distract from his current political woes: He recently faced backlash from members of his base over his handling of files related to convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein.
Still, President Trump has doubled down on Gabbard’s assertions, even reposting a video generated by artificial intelligence (AI) on Monday showing Obama being handcuffed in the Oval Office, while the song YMCA played.
“ This is, like, proof – irrefutable proof – that Obama was seditious, that Obama was trying to lead a coup,” Trump said on Tuesday. “Obama headed it up.”
Experts have long speculated that Trump may use a second term as president to settle political scores and seek retaliation against his foes.
