UNITED States President Donald Trump has called for the arrest of former President Barack Obama, repeating unproven claims that the Democrat’s administration intentionally misled the public in its assessment of the 2016 election.
At Tuesday’s Oval Office meeting with Philippine President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr, Trump accused Obama, a longtime rival, of helming a criminal conspiracy.
“ The leader of the gang was President Obama, Barack Hussein Obama,” Trump told the media.
“ 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, even in other countries.”
President Trump has a history of spreading election-related falsehoods, including by denying his own defeat in the 2020 race.
But since taking office for a second term, he has sought to settle scores over his victory in the 2016 presidential contest, which raised questions about Russia’s alleged attempts to influence the outcome.
In 2016, in the waning days of Obama’s second term, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) concluded that Russia had attempted to sway the results in Trump’s favour. Obama responded to the allegations by expelling Russian diplomats and slapping sanctions on the country.
An intelligence community assessment in 2017 later offered details into the Russian influence campaign.
But in 2019, a special counsel’s report found there was not enough evidence to support the claim that the Trump campaign had colluded with Russia. It did, however, once again underscore the government’s assertion that Russia had interfered in the election “in sweeping and systematic fashion”.
Trump, however, has described such probes as politicised attacks designed to undermine his authority.
In Tuesday’s appearance, Trump cited recent claims from his director of national intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard, to assert wrongdoing on the part of the Obama administration.
“They caught President Obama absolutely cold,” Trump said. “They tried to rig the election, and they got caught, and there should be very severe consequences for that.”
