Karoline Leavitt excoriates media for perpetuating 'complete scam' of Russia hoax
"Unfortunately, so many Americans, from listening to outlets in this room, believed in these lies, and it's a complete scam, and it's a scandal and the president wants to see accountability for that," Leavitt told reporters.
"He wants to see all those who perpetuated this fraud against our country, who betrayed our country and the Constitution, to be thoroughly investigated and held accountable, and it's been 10 years of this," Leavitt said. "And I would just add, based on everything the [DNI] director has said and declassified, all of you in this room should go through it and take a look at this report and review the intelligence, because, unfortunately, that hasn't happened."
Leavitt made the remarks in response to a question from a reporter who asked if the White House believes that the Supreme Court's immunity decision protects former President Barack Obama from prosecution.
During the briefing, Leavitt was joined by Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, who said that her findings at the DNI suggest that the Obama administration promoted a "contrived narrative" that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
"There is irrefutable evidence that details how President Obama and his national security team directed the creation of an intelligence community assessment that they knew was false," Gabbard said. "They knew it would promote this contrived narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election to help President Trump win, selling it to the American people as though it were true it wasn't."
Leavitt also criticized the outlets that were present at the briefing.
"Many of the people who perpetuated this hoax — Clapper, Andy McCabe and James Comey and many others — have been hired by major networks in this room to go on television and continue to spew these lies, knowing that they are lies," she said.
The press secretary also blasted the Democratic Party for their part in pursuing the Russia narrative.
"Just flashback to 2016 and the years after the entire Trump-one presidency was embroiled in this scandal that was perpetuated by the Democrat Party, and you had major Democratic Party officials in this city, namely Adam Schiff, Hillary Clinton, Elizabeth Warren, who went on television and told the American people, 'Donald Trump is an asset of Russia,'" she continued.
"It was a lie," Leavitt said. "They always knew it. So Hillary Clinton herself said that President Trump would be a puppet for Putin. Sen. Tim Kaine, at the time, called President Trump 'Vladimir Putin's defense lawyer.' Adam Schiff stated, and one of the worst things a lawmaker could do is to tell the American people, 'I know something you don't know, it's just classified, and I can't tell you,' and that's what he said. 'I can tell you that the case is more than that. I can't go into the particulars, but there's more than circumstantial evidence now.'"
"And not enough people in this room, not enough journalists in this country pushed Adam Schiff to say, 'What are you talking about? What evidence do you have?' Everybody just ran with the lies, and it led to impeachments, and it led to the division of our country," she said.
Trump on Tuesday claimed that Obama was the "ringleader" of Russiagate, calling for him to be criminally investigated amid new claims that members of his administration allegedly "manufactured" intelligence that prompted the Trump–Russia collusion narrative.
"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 spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. "But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one."
"These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," Obama's spokesman continued. "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."
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