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Trump Re-Ups Criticism of Obama’s Handling of Russia

POTUS pins blame on predecessor for Russia meddling in U.S. elections

President Donald Trump continued his Twitter attack on former President Barack Obama on Tuesday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)
President Donald Trump continued his Twitter attack on former President Barack Obama on Tuesday. (Bill Clark/CQ Roll Call file photo)

President Donald Trump kept his foot on the gas on Twitter Tuesday blaming his predecessor for Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. elections, annexation of Crimea, and swelling influence in Syria.

The Democrats’ interest in the Russian affair, Trump alleged, arose only after he won the election.

“Thank you to for the great timeline on all of the failures the Obama Administration had against Russia, including Crimea, Syria and so much more,” Trump tweeted to kick off a week in which both chambers of Congress are in recess.

“We are now starting to win again!” Trump added.

Trump tweeted a quote from Barack Obama in which the former president said there is “no serious person … who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections.”

Watch: Trump Sends Condolences to Florida Shooting Victims and Families

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At the time, Trump was warning his base that the election was rigged in an apparent hedge against the likelihood he might lose. That was preposterous, Democrats said.

But when Trump pulled off the upset, he claims, Democrats flipped course and cried foul at the Russian campaign to influence elections.

Then-candidate Trump, however, appeared to be referring to internal forces he contended were giving Clinton an unfair edge.

There were warnings from the Democratic administration in the homestretch of the presidential race. That came with an October 2016 report from all 16 U.S. intelligence agencies in which all agreed Russia interfered in the election. The Republican and Democratic leaders of the Senate Intelligence Committee quickly expressed their agreement.

Special counsel Robert Mueller has indicted 13 Russian nationals as part of his ongoing investigation.

Obama “thought Crooked Hillary was going to win and he didn’t want to ‘rock the boat,’” Trump tweeted Tuesday morning. “When I easily won the Electoral College, the whole game changed and the Russian excuse became the narrative of the Dems.”

Over the weekend, the president launched a series of attacks from his Twitter fortress at Obama, blaming the former president for everything from Russian meddling in the elections to the high school shooting in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17.

Obama was not his only target.

California Rep. Adam Schiff, the ranking member on the House Intelligence Committee, Hillary Clinton, and White House national security adviser H.R. McMaster were also on the receiving end of Trump’s barbs.

— John T. Bennett contributed to this report.

 

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