Barack Obama has dismissed US President Donald Trump’s latest accusation that he tried to orchestrate a “coup” to undermine Trump’s 2016 election victory, calling the claims “outrageous” and “a weak attempt at distraction.”
Obama’s office responded to Trump’s escalating rhetoric, which accused the former President of “treason.”
The statement broke with the tradition of former presidents remaining silent about successors, signalling growing concern about Trump’s allegations.
“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,” Obama’s spokesperson said, as reported by The Guardian. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.”
The comments came after Trump, speaking in the Oval Office while hosting Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., accused Obama of being the ringleader of a “treasonous” plot.
The statement from Obama’s office aimed at the 11-page report released last week by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who claimed to have uncovered evidence of a “treasonous conspiracy” involving Obama-era national security officials and said she had referred the matter to the Justice Department, urging their prosecution.
When asked by a reporter who should be prosecuted based on the report, Trump said: “It would be President Obama. He started it, and Biden was there with him… It was them, too, but the leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?”
Trump added, “This isn’t like evidence. This is like proof, irrefutable proof that Obama was sedatious [sic], that Obama… was trying to lead a coup, and it was with Hillary Clinton… He’s guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of.”
In the 11-page document, Gabbard said she had “thousands of additional documents coming” and characterised the situation as “the most unbelievable thing I think I’ve ever read,” according to Reuters.
Obama’s spokesperson, Patrick Rodenbush, said: “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.”
The US intelligence community’s 2017 assessment concluded that Russia engaged in social media manipulation, hacking, and leaking Democratic Party documents in an effort to aid Trump and damage Hillary Clinton. It found no evidence that vote tallies were changed, Reuters reported.
The 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee was led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio, now serving as Trump’s Secretary of State.
Fulton Armstrong, a former CIA analyst, told The Guardian that Gabbard’s document “was obviously written with a pre-ordained conclusion,” describing her references to the “deep state” as “amateurish, silly,” and the report itself as “such shit.”
“She’s clever to use crappy precedents and confusion to make her case, but an issue like Russian manipulation of US elections… is almost certainly going to leave enough offal on the floor that anyone who wanted to make a one-sided political slam job can find enough to fill an 11-page paper,” Armstrong said.
Trump, under pressure from his base to release documents related to the late financier Jeffrey Epstein, used the Gabbard report to pivot away from that issue. In an apparent coded message to supporters, he said, “You want to take a look at that and stop talking about nonsense.”
In recent weeks, Trump also reposted a fake video showing Obama being arrested in the Oval Office.
