Former President Obama is suddenly on President Donald Trump’s radar.
Extremely serious leaks at the highest level of government have derailed the president’s national security agenda, even ruling out former National Security Adviser Michael Flynn for misleading the administration and news media about a call to the Russian ambassador. Now, Trump is lashing out with a vengeance.
President Trump was asked about the damaging leaks while on “Fox and Friends,” and he was not bashful about pointing the blame at the former president.
“It turns out his organization seems to doing a lot of the organizing to some of the protests that these Republicans are seeing around the country and against you. Do you believe President Obama is behind it, and if he is, is that a violation of the so-called ‘unsaid presidents’ code’?” Brian Kilmeade asked.
“No, I think he is behind it. I also think it is politics, that’s the way it is,” Trump replied.
When Kilmeade pointed out that it appears former President George W. Bush refrained from attacking his predecessor Bill Clinton, Trump posed his accusation within a framework of it being normal politics.
“You never know what’s exactly happening behind the scenes. You know, you’re probably right or possibly right, but you never know,” Trump said in the interview excerpt.
As was rightly pointed out by CNN, the current president did not offer any evidence in support of his accusation that President Obama was directly behind the leaks.
The manner that Trump parsed the accusation, as per usual, was such that it was expressed as a personal opinion. However, as the highest ranking public official in the land, even venting suspicion of foul play, particularly of a former president, is serious business. It is particularly egregious given the nature of unsubstantiated accusations facing him in the press; particularly, regarding ties to the Russian government.
George W. Bush, for the record, recently aired his opinion about President Trump’s policies during an interview on “Today.” At one point in the interview, Bush appeared to criticize Trump’s handling of press scrutiny:
“I consider the media to be indispensable to democracy, that we need an independent media to hold people like me to account. Power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”
Bush’s remarks follow upon the Trump administration’s hostile actions towards several media outlets, which he believes have engaged in “fake news” and attacks against his administration.
Trump has even gone so far as to single out CNN as “very fake news” and as the “Clinton News Network.” The White House further infuriated the press by excluding several news outlets from a press gaggle, including CNN, Buzzfeed, Politico, BBC, and The Hill.
On Sunday, Hollywood celebrities lined up to take shots at President Trump, especially Oscars host Jimmy Kimmel. Despite the host’s best effort to get the president to comment on the show, Trump stayed off of Twitter and was otherwise attending to other official matters, namely, the Governors Ball.
President Trump showed Hollywood that not saying anything at all can be the most powerful comment. He didn’t give the entertainment press what it wanted: a provocative soundbite that they could use to banter about the unseriousness of the administration. Instead, he showed restraint and that he could be above it all — by honoring the nation’s governors and military service members.
It’s this kind of class — and the demeanor of being above it all — that many Americans can unite around.
