President Trump Questions Obama and Democrats’ Concern Over Russian Interference

In a short Twitter thread about Presidents’ Day, President Donald Trump questioned why former President Barack Obama didn’t do anything about Russian meddling before the 2016 Presidential election, and then went on to say Democrats would not have cared about Russia’s interference in the 2016 election had former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton won the presidency.

“Obama was President up to, and beyond, the 2016 Election,” Trump tweeted last night. “So why didn’t he do something about Russian meddling?”

“‘There is no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections, there’s no evidence that that has happened in the past or that it will happen this time, and so I’d invite Mr. Trump to stop whining and make his case to get votes,’” Trump later tweeted, quoting Obama. “The President Obama quote just before election. That’s because he thought Crooked Hillary was going to win and he didn’t want to ‘rock the boat.’ When I easily won the Electoral College, the whole game changed and the Russian excuse became the narrative of the Dems.”

Obama did not respond to Trump’s tweets.

The accusations against Obama come shortly after thirteen Russian nationals were indicted by a federal grand jury on Friday for attempting to boost both Trump’s and current Senator Bernie Sanders’ presidential campaigns.  

Sanders did not directly address Russian interference in his own presidential campaign when responding to the news.

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“It has been clear to everyone (except Donald Trump) that Russia was deeply involved in the 2016 election and intends to be involved in 2018. It is the American people who should be deciding the political future of our country, not Mr. Putin and the Russian oligarchs,” Sanders said in a statement via Twitter. “It is absolutely imperative that the Mueller investigation be allowed to go forward without obstruction from the Trump administration or Congress.”

Sanders has spoken out in support of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation of Trump. He released a series of tweets in response to Trump’s first State of the Union speech — all including the hashtag “#BernieResponds” — and questioned Trump not acknowledging Russia.

“How can Trump not talk about the reality that Russia, through cyberwarfare, interfered in our election in 2016, is interfering in democratic elections all over the world, and according to his own CIA director will likely interfere in the 2018 midterm elections?” Sanders said.

Just a few weeks ago, the Vermont senator spoke out against what he believed to be Trump’s attempt to distract from the investigation.

“The release of the Nunes memo is a blatant attempt by House Republicans and the White House to disrupt the critically important investigation into Russia’s interference in the 2016 election and possible collusion between Russia and the Trump campaign,” Sanders tweeted. “According to news reports President Trump himself has acknowledged that the release of the Nunes memo was designed to disrupt Robert Mueller’s investigation. No political stunt should interfere with the special counsel’s work.”

Trump, for the most part, has denied responsibility for Russian collusion and interference, and he has dismissed the issue as insignificant.

“Do you notice the Fake News Mainstream Media never likes covering the great and record setting economic news, but rather talks about anything negative or that can be turned into the negative,” Trump tweeted in January. “The Russian Collusion Hoax is dead, except as it pertains to the Dems. Public gets it!”

However, the investigation into Russian collusion is still going on, and Mueller is in the midst of his work, having just charged a lawyer with lying about his interactions with former Trump aide Rick Gates. According to CNN, this charge compounds the investigation into what activities the Trump campaign engaged in with “Russian-allied clients.”