The president seems eternally unable to acknowledge the interest that actually bears responsibility for Russian interests having meddled in the 2016 presidential election — the Russians. He has, of course, a good reason for this, with the Russians having worked in his favor throughout the months leading up to the 2016 presidential election, apart even from the question of whether or not the Trump team actively assisted the Russians in their meddling efforts.
On Monday — President’s Day — Trump took to Twitter to again, essentially, stick up for Russian interests above those of the country that he is actually supposed to be leading.
This time, he again touted the idea that, because the Obama administration didn’t do as much as possible to stop Russian interference in the election while having preliminary knowledge about it, our most recent former president bears some form of responsibility for the continuation of the interference itself.
He wrote:
‘Obama was President up to, and beyond, the 2016 Election. So why didn’t he do something about Russian meddling?’
To be clear, Obama did do something about Russian meddling, having imposed sanctions in response to the meddling in the weeks after the election, besides his dismissal of an array of Russian diplomats from the country.
Congress recently passed a measure supporting a new round of sanctions against Russian interests, in the face of increasing evidence of the severity of what Russia was trying to do, but the Trump administration has so far declined to implement those sanctions.
Concurrent to this fact, President Trump himself has taken essentially zero steps to respond to Russian interference in our most recent elections. Recently, as just one indication of the stunning degree of inaction on the part of the president, FBI Director Christopher Wray testified before Congress that the president had not specifically directed him to take any steps to counter possible Russian interference in the upcoming 2018 midterm elections, although he did say that his agency was taking such steps of its own accord.
Even in the face of these facts, the president has the audacity to accuse Obama of not having done enough to counter Russian election interference.
This Monday statement is not the first time that the president has accused Obama of not having done enough to counter Russian election interference.
He did so just this past weekend on Twitter, twisting words from the prominent Democratic member of the U.S. House and ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee Adam Schiff to make it seem like the representative agreed with him.
Trump, as president, has the power to actually do something, and yet he chooses not to, instead opting to occupy his and the nation’s time with an essentially endless stream of incendiary statements.
He acts not at all like the innocent person he claims to be, instead acting like he has something to hide. Concurrent to that, the investigations of Special Counsel Robert Mueller and various Congressional committees into Russian election interference and possible Trump team cooperation with that interference remain ongoing.
Through all of this, the president acts surprised when the nation views him with suspicion.
Check out Twitter’s response to him below.
Featured Image via Win McNamee/Getty Images
