One Day After Indictments Against Russian Military Officers, Trump Blames Obama For Russian Election Meddling
A day after the Department of Justice announced fresh indictments against 12 Russian intelligence officials for hacking into the DNC servers, Donald Trump gave his response by blaming former president Barack Obama for not doing anything about it.
Trump is currently in Scotland, spending time at his Turnberry golf resort after a tense and awkward few days meeting with European allies and a two-day tour of the UK, where he criticized host PM Theresa May for not pushing for a hard Brexit. While the president prepares for his upcoming meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Finland, which many observers back home have called on the president to cancel, he tweeted his official response to the news that 12 fresh indictments were served to Russian officials.
“The stories you heard about the 12 Russians yesterday took place during the Obama Administration, not the Trump Administration. Why didn’t they do something about it, especially when it was reported that President Obama was informed by the FBI in September, before the Election?”
Trump claims that because the hacks took place when Barack Obama was president, he must be exonerated from taking any action against Russia — most likely an indirect response to those asking for him to either cancel the Putin meeting altogether, or at least firmly press the Russian president about his country’s involvement in the 2016 presidential elections.
On the Eve of His Meeting with Putin, Trump Blames Obama for Russian Meddling https://t.co/bUxCPLdM5k pic.twitter.com/ci9HeAhMGC
— Mother Jones (@MotherJones) July 14, 2018
But as Mother Jones reports, Trump’s assertion is blatantly misleading. Former President Barack Obama in fact immediately called on a bipartisan meeting when the American intelligence community informed him that Russia had meddled in the elections. But as the Washington Post reported at the time, it was Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell who warned that any attempt by the White House to publicly discuss the Russian meddling before the elections would be considered an act of partisan politics.
Despite this, the Obama administration allowed the intelligence community leaders to issue a statement which blamed Russia for the DNC hack. Later, a day before Election Day, Obama had done what many have been asking Trump to do — confront Russian president Vladimir Putin about the meddling, and demand that Russian agents stop interfering in U.S. elections.
And just before leaving office, Barack Obama had imposed sanctions on Russia, closing down several Russian compounds in Washington and firing a number of Russian diplomats.
Despite this, Donald Trump blames Barack Obama for not having done anything about Russian election meddling, while he goes around bragging about his great relationship with Vladimir Putin on the eve of their meeting.
