Latest news with #treason
Yahoo
9 minutes ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
CNN Panel Erupts Over Trump Attacking Obama: ‘No, I'm Not Gonna Calm Down!'
CNN host Abby Phillip oversaw a heated debate Tuesday over President Donald Trump's recent attacks against former President Barack Obama, which included him sharing an artificial intelligence-generated video of Obama being arrested and in prison. Trump shared the video on Sunday on social media after his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, issued a report Friday accusing the Obama White House of a 'treasonous conspiracy' by stating Russia aimed to help Trump win the 2016 presidential election. 'He's accusing a former president of treason, and on top of that, saying ... 'It may not be right, but I'm gonna go after them anyway,'' Phillip said Tuesday. 'What is he talking about? And what kind of country are we living in that is actually what he is doing?' Her panelists quickly clashed over the subject, as Republican consultant Brad Todd argued in a seeming attempt to excuse Trump's behavior that Democrats have accused him of for several years of rigging the 2016 election with Russia's help. 'Oh my God,' replied Keith Boykin, a former White House aide to President Bill Clinton. 'Why are we talking about this? This is not the issue. You're trying to avoid the subject.' Todd noted that a spokesperson for Obama reiterated Tuesday that Russia tried but failed to manipulate any votes in the election. He appeared far angrier about 'every liberal in America' supposedly believing otherwise, however, than about Trump accusing Obama. 'You're doing everything possible not to talk about the fact that the ... current president of the United States, just accused a former president of treason and suggested a prosecution of that former president with no evidence!' Boykin said. 'That is the problem!' Boykin: The current president just accused a former president of treason and suggested a prosecution of that former president with no You can calm down. — Acyn (@Acyn) July 23, 2025 'You can calm down,' Todd responded. 'No, I'm not gonna calm down!' Boykin replied. 'Why don't you talk about that instead of talking about Obama?' Todd argued, 'Because Obama just undid three years of Democrat mythology.' Todd was referencing a statement Tuesday from Obama spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush, who reaffirmed that Russia indeed 'worked to influence' the 2016 election, but did not successfully manipulate any votes, which has been known since at least 2020. '[Russian President Vladimir] Putin and the Russian Government demonstrated a preference for candidate Trump,' a bipartisan Senate Intelligence Report stated at the time. Gabbard's report and the fake video Trump shared only emerged after his ties to Jeffrey Epstein, the late sex offender who died in jail while awaiting trial on federal sex trafficking charges, hit fever pitch — leading many to believe these stunts are mere distractions. 'The problem is, this is what Trump does. He distracts everybody. He's talking about President Obama because he doesn't want to talk about Epstein,' said Boykin. 'He's doing everything possible except talking about Jeffrey Epstein because he's trying to throw up distraction[s] so the people like you,' he added, 'Todd, can come on TV and try to diffuse the issue.' Related... Ex-GOP Strategist Flags The Telling Sign Of What Totally 'Scares' Trump 'Now Do Epstein': Martin Luther King Jr.'s Daughter Takes Aim At Trump Over Released MLK Files Trump-Favoring FCC Chair Takes Aim At Democrats 'Wailing' Over Colbert Cancellation
The Guardian
an hour ago
- Politics
- The Guardian
Obama breaks silence on Trump's ‘outrageous' call to prosecute him
Barack Obama has broken his silence on calls from Donald Trump for him to be prosecuted by unequivocally rejecting his successor's accusations that he tried to engineer a 'coup' following Trump's 2016 election victory by 'manufacturing' evidence of Russian interference. Obama's office took the unusual step of issuing an emphatic refutation after Trump told reporters that his predecessor had '[tried] to lead a coup' against him and was guilty of 'treason' over intelligence assessments suggesting that Russia had intervened to help Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the campaign. '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,' the statement said. 'But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.' The statement went on to criticize claims made in an 11-page document released last week by Tulsi Gabbard, the director of national intelligence, who said she was passing evidence of what she claimed was a 'treasonous conspiracy' among Obama national security officials to the justice department, recommending their prosecution. '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,' it said. 'These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.' Obama's response followed a fusillade of accusations by Trump in the White House as he was meeting the president of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos Jr, the son of the country's former autocratic president, who was ousted in a popular 'people's power revolution' in 1986. Asked by a reporter who should be the main target of the criminal investigation recommended in Gabbard's report, Trump said: 'Based on what I read, and I read pretty much what you read, it would be President Obama. He started it, and Biden was there with him. And [James] Comey [the former FBI director] was there, and [James] Clapper [the former director of national intelligence], the whole group was there. 'It was them, too, but the leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama. Have you heard of him?' He went on: '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, with all these other people, but Obama headed it up. 'He's guilty. This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever even imagined.' Trump said Gabbard had told him she had 'thousands of additional documents coming'. 'It's the most unbelievable thing I think I've ever read. So you want to take a look at that and stop talking about nonsense,' he said, in what appeared to be a coded appeal for supporters to drop their demands for the release of documents related to Jeffrey Epstein, the disgraced financier who was found dead in his prison cell in 2019 as he awaited trial on sex-trafficking charges. But the Gabbard report, which accused the Obama administration of forcing spy agencies to alter their conclusions, conflated and misrepresented different issues to discredit the intelligence community's assessment in 2017 that Russia sought to simultaneously help Trump and damage Clinton. The assessment concluded that Russia did not engage in cyber-attacks against election infrastructure to change vote tallies, but found Moscow hacked and leaked documents from the Democratic National Committee to damage the Clinton campaign. Sign up to Headlines US Get the most important US headlines and highlights emailed direct to you every morning after newsletter promotion The Gabbard report used that first conclusion to suggest that a broader Russian influence operation did not occur, and cited Obama's presidential daily brief in December 2016 that concluded there were no Russian hacks of election systems being pushed back as evidence of political interference in the assessment. Assertions of Russian interference were subsequently borne out in the report published by the special counsel Robert Mueller, in 2019, and the bipartisan Senate intelligence committee report published the following year, led by Rubio, now secretary of state in Trump's administration. A former CIA analyst and national intelligence officer, Fulton Armstrong, told the Guardian in an email that Gabbard's paper 'was obviously written with a pre-ordained conclusion'. 'Even a quick read shows how the confusion between confidence and probability [over intelligence assessments] – even if not deliberate – leads to sloppiness and manipulation,' Armstrong said. 'The bigger problem is that Tulsi's paper is such shit. Her reference to 'deep state officials' is amateurish, silly, and undercuts the whole damned document. 'She's clever to use crappy precedents and confusion to make her case, but an issue like Russian manipulation of US elections, with so many analysts from diverse organizational cultures, 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.'
Yahoo
2 hours ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
President Trump accuses Barack Obama of treason
In our Washington Report, President Donald Trump is accusing Barack Obama of treason, and now the former president is firing back. It all stems from an investigation into Russia's role in the 2016 election. Doug Luzader has more.
Telegraph
4 hours ago
- Politics
- Telegraph
Obama dismisses ‘nonsense flowing from the White House'
Barack Obama has dismissed 'the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of the White House' after Donald Trump accused him of treason. The US president said Mr Obama '[tried] to lead a coup' after his first presidential win and that he was guilty of 'treason' for 'manufacturing' evidence suggesting that Russia had meddled to help Mr Trump defeat Hillary Clinton in the 2016 presidential race. In a rare retort, an Obama spokesman denounced Mr Trump's attack as 'ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction '. Mr Trump was referring to a report from Tulsi Gabbard, the US intelligence chief, released last week that she said contained evidence of what she called a 'treasonous conspiracy in 2016 committed by officials at the highest level of our government'. The Democrats have described the alleged findings as false and politically motivated. Mr Trump also reposted an AI-generated video showing Mr Obama being arrested in the Oval Office on his Truth Social account on Sunday. It comes as the US president squirms to redirect renewed scrutiny over his relationship with paedophile Jeffrey Epstein. In what is fast becoming the biggest crisis of his second term, the Trump administration has faced mounting pressure to unseal grand jury testimony related to the disgraced financier, who was found dead in his Manhattan jail cell while awaiting trial in 2019. 'The witch hunt that you should be talking about is they caught president Obama absolutely cold,' Mr Trump told reporters, offering no proof of his claims. 'It's time to go after people, Obama's been caught directly. He's guilty. This was treason,' he added. 'They tried to steal the election, they tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody's ever imagined, even in other countries,' Mr Trump said. Patrick Rodenbush, the Obama spokesman, said: '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. 'But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' he added. Ms Gabbard's report declassified emails between Obama aides, and argued they had suppressed intelligence findings that Russia had failed in probing attempts to hack US election databases. The intelligence chief said the emails were evidence of a 'treasonous conspiracy' to sabotage Mr Trump, and she threatened to refer Obama administration officials to the justice department for prosecution. A 2017 assessment by the US intelligence community found that Russia, using social media disinformation, hacking and Russian bot farms, sought to derail Democrat Hillary Clinton's campaign. The assessment determined that the actual impact was likely limited and showed no evidence that Moscow's efforts actually changed voting outcomes.
Daily Mail
5 hours ago
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Obama responds powerfully to Trump's Russia hoax prosecution threat
Former President Barack Obama tore into Donald Trump in a rare and blistering statement after the president dramatically accused him of 'treason' and said the Justice Department should probe his rival over the Russia 'hoax.' '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. But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one, said Patrick Rodenbush, a spokesman for Obama's office. 'These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' he added. The former president's spokesman then turned to the report of Tulsi Gabbard (pictured), the director of national intelligence, who alleged that the Obama administration 'manufactured and politicized intelligence' against Trump. '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. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.' That last lined needled Trump's secretary of state and national security advisor, who was seated next to the president during his extended discourse on Obama and his team. Trump and Obama have a fraught relationship, although they were spotted chatting in what appeared to be amiable fashion at Jimmy Carter's funeral in January. Trump rode 'birther' conspiracies about Obama to influence in his first successful run for president. And Obama's roasting of Trump at the White House Correspondents' Dinner in 2011 still looms large in Trump's inspiration to finally pursue the White House. The pushback from Obama's team came after Trump issued an extraordinary call Tuesday to investigate the former president – saying he had been caught 'cold' and accusing his predecessor of 'treason.' Trump issued his stunning series of attacks on the two-term Democratic president shortly after being asked yet another question about Jeffrey Epstein – a matter that is itself so explosive that House Republican leaders sent members home on recess, thereby avoiding a difficult vote on the issue. 'I don't follow it too much,' he said of the Epstein matter. Trump attempted to turn the tables, referring repeatedly to a new report released by his Director of National Intelligence that accused Obama of being behind a 'treasonous conspiracy' to fabricate what Trump repeatedly calls the Russia 'hoax' to bring him down. Intel chief Tulsi Gabbard made a series of criminal referrals to Pam Bondi's (pictured) Justice Department and the agency is reportedly considering the request. 'After what they did to me, whether it's right or wrong, it's time to go after people,' Trump said while seated next to Philippine President Ferdinand 'Bongbong' Marcos, Jr. in the Oval Office. Trump was asked who the Justice Department should investigate following the report's release for a potential criminal referral. He didn't hesitate to name Obama and top members of his security team. 'It would be President Obama – who started it – and Biden was there with him, and [James] Comey was there, and [James] Clapper, the whole group was there,' Trump responded. At another point, Trump said Attorney General Pam Bondi should 'act' on the matter – while also indicating it was at her discretion. 'We have a very competent, very good, very loyal to our country person in Pam Bondi – very respected. And she – it's going to be her decision,' Trump said. Trump repeated calls to prosecute a wide circle of former Democratic officials come after he posted AI-generated video images of Obama being arrested and thrown in jail wearing an orange jumpsuit. Trump accused his rivals of organizing a failed 'coup' in 2016, when he defeated Hillary Clinton and captured the White House. Trump faced four criminal trials during his last campaign, with the January 6 case, his Florida classified documents case, and his New York 'hush money' case all vanishing after he won the election and captured the White House. A New York jury convicted him of 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, but it proved to be a rallying cry for his base and part of his campaign message that nefarious forces would do anything to try and halt his comeback. The president fingered Obama for trying to 'head a coup' with acolytes like former FBI Director James Comey and former DNI Director James Clapper doing his dirty work. Trump also called the Steele report, which examined his campaign's ties to Russia, as 'all lies' and a 'fabrication.' The Mueller Report found that while Russia did interfere in the 2016 election, the Trump campaign did not conspire or coordinate with the Russian government, despite at least 140 contacts between the Trump campaign and Russian nationals. Trump has hammered his rivals for what he calls 'no collusion' ever since, even though Mueller himself never used that term.
