The subsequent factor former President Barack Obama shall be calling a press convention to announce, Richard Nixon like, that he’s not a traitor.
Solely in President Nixon’s case, he needed to announce that he was not a criminal.
Trendy American presidents have referred to as their home political opponents, or enemies, many issues through the years, however by no means a traitor. Till now.
In an unheard-of improvement in trendy American politics, President Donald Trump mentioned that Obama was responsible of treason for manipulating excessive stage intelligence to border him as a Russian stooge.
“It’s there,” Trump mentioned of “proof” turned over to the Justice Division by Director of Nationwide Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard.
It expenses that Obama and his staff “manufactured” intelligence to falsely declare that Russia helped Trump defeat Democrat Hillary Clinton within the 2016 election and used the misinformation to sabotage his first presidency.
“He’s responsible,” Trump mentioned.
He referred to as Obama the “ringleader” of a gaggle of intelligence officers– together with former FBI Director James Comey, former CIA Director John Brennan and former Director of Nationwide Intelligence James Clapper– of colluding after which leaking doctored intelligence experiences to tie Trump to Russia in 2016 and thereafter.
The doctored intelligence was allegedly designed to indicate that Russians had been behind Trump in 2016 when he defeated Hillary Clinton after which used to assist Democrats wreck Trump’s presidency within the following 4 years, which they did.
Whereas he beat Clinton, the Russian collusion narrative, pushed by Democrats and the institution media, broken his presidency and contributed to his defeat by the hands of Joe Biden in 2020.
“This was treason,” Trump mentioned. “They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did issues that no person’s ever imagined, even in different nations.”
Gabbard, who has unearthed and launched beforehand buried incriminating intelligence, mentioned that Obama orchestrated a “years lengthy coup” to maintain Trump out of the White Home in 2020. She mentioned it was “treasonous.”
Obama didn’t, after all, name a press convention to immediately deny that he was a traitor. The previous president is means too good for that.
That might have been like Nixon 52 years in the past when, underneath stress that he had obstructed justice over Watergate in addition to profiting illicitly from his presidency, referred to as a press convention to disclaim each expenses.
“The folks should know whether or not or not their president is a criminal,” he mentioned. “Effectively, I’m not a criminal.”
4 months later he resigned in shame as president and obtained a full pardon from President Gerald Ford, his successor.
Maybe if Obama held an identical press convention to say, “I’m not a traitor,” Trump would concern him a full pardon as effectively
However Obama properly took a distinct however safer route. As a substitute of answering Trump’s feedback immediately, Obama issued an announcement via his spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush. It mentioned Trump’s “outrageous” feedback had been a bunch of “nonsense.”
“These weird allegations are ridiculous and a weak try at distraction,” Rodenbush mentioned, apparently referring to the furor over calls for for the discharge of the Epstein recordsdata.
The institution media, which was a prepared companion in spreading the phony, Obama-inspired Russian/Trump collusion story, was fast to accuse Gabbard of distracting consideration away from the Epstein recordsdata controversy, as if the 2 had been if the identical significance.
They aren’t. The Epstein story is a intercourse scandal.
The Obama story is a few president allegedly doctoring categorised intelligence to destroy Trump, his presidential successor.
Obama must do greater than disguise behind an announcement issued via a spokesperson.
He ought to face up at a press convention like Nixon did. He owes the nation a solution.
Veteran political reporter Peter Lucas will be reached at: peter.lucas@bostonherald.com
Alex Brandon/ The Related Press
President Donald Trump speaks with reporters earlier than departing on Marine One from the South Garden of the White Home on Friday. (AP Picture/Alex Brandon)
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