Former president Barack Obama has hit back at Donald Trump\u2019s claim that he engaged in a conspiracy to subvert the 2016 election, branding the allegations a weak attempt to distract from the Epstein files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a rare statement, Obama\u2019s office issued a stinging rebuke saying the claim was both ridiculous and bizarre.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cOut 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. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one,\u201d said the statement from Obama\u2019s, spokesman Patrick Rodenbush.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction. 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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThese findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The claim that Obama engaged in a \u201ctreasonous conspiracy\u201d to rig Trump\u2019s 2016 election victory emerged over the weekend when Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard declassified emails that she said showed Obama officials had engaged in a \u201cyears long coup\u201d against Trump.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
According to Gabbard, officials tried to bury intelligence in the final weeks of the Obama administration and then manufacture an alternative assessment of a Russian influence campaign on American voters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cTheir goal was to usurp President Trump and subvert the will of the American people,\u201d Gabbard wrote on social media. \u201cNo matter how powerful, every person involved in this conspiracy must be investigated and prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump, who has claimed for years that the investigation into Russian interference was a \u201choax\u201d, embraced the findings, and even posted an AI-generated video of Obama being arrested in the Oval Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
On Tuesday, during a bilateral meeting with Philippines President Ferdinand \u201cBongong\u201d Marcus, he also launched a lengthy tirade pushing the claims, while taking aim at others too, including 2016 rival Hillary Clinton, former FBI director James Comey, former CIA director James Clapper, and former president Joe Biden.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThe witch hunt you should be talking about is they caught President Obama absolutely cold,\u201d Trump told reporters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey tried to rig the election, and they got caught. And there should be very severe consequences for that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But Democrats agree with Obama that the issue is an attempt to distract from the political firestorm surrounding child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, which has fractured Trump\u2019s MAGA base and caused an ongoing headache for the White House.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump came to office promising to release the criminal files on the Epstein case, but then insisted last week that it was a Democratic hoax.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The president was forced to pivot again on Thursday night after the Wall Street Journal published a report claiming Trump gave Epstein a saucy letter in 2003, featuring a drawing of a naked woman with his name mimicking pubic hair.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump, who vehemently denies the letter was his, is now suing the Wall Street Journal but has asked Attorney General Pam Bondi to \u201cproduce any and all pertinent Grand Jury testimony, subject to Court approval.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The Department of Justice has also sought a meeting with Ghislaine Maxwell, Epstein\u2019s accomplice and former girlfriend, hoping she may spill further secrets.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But the president remains deeply frustrated that so much attention remains on the Epstein files.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe had the Greatest Six Months of any President in the History of our Country, and all the Fake News wants to talk about is the Jeffrey Epstein Hoax!\u201d he posted on Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Former president Barack Obama has hit back at Donald Trump\u2019s claim that he engaged in a conspiracy to subvert the 2016 election, branding the allegations a weak attempt to distract from the Epstein files. In a rare statement, Obama\u2019s office issued a stinging rebuke saying the claim was both ridiculous and bizarre. \u201cOut of respect…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":327,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[152,153,149],"class_list":["post-326","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general","tag-epstein","tag-obama","tag-trump"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=326"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":328,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/326\/revisions\/328"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/327"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=326"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=326"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hkg01.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=326"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}