President Trump on Sunday praised Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff for putting some of the blame for Russian interference in the 2016 election on former President Barack Obama, while still referring to the California congressman derisively as “liddle.”
“Finally, Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!” Trump tweeted.
Finally, Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
The comment comes after Schiff said the Obama administration’s lax response to the 2014 hack of Sony helped encourage the Russians to pull off their influence campaign in the 2016 election.
“I think that others around the world watched that and determined that cyber is a cost-free intervention,” Schiff told NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell at an event Saturday.
He added the Obama administration should have done more to alert the American public there was interference in the 2016 election.
“We should have called them out much earlier,” Schiff said. “While I respect the motive in terms of the Obama administration, they didn’t want to be seen as meddling, the American people had a right to know what was going on and could be trusted to do the right thing with it. And they should have defended being more public and aggressive at the time, at least in my view.”
Special counsel Robert Mueller has charged 13 Russians with charges ranging from fraud to destruction of evidence, and an indictment spelled out how a Russian firm conspired to influence the 2016 election.
The Russian firm planned on interfering in the election months before Trump declared he would run for president, but the indictment alleged the Russians eventually developed a preference for Trump and worked to get him elected. The indictment did not allege any member of the Trump campaign knowingly worked with the Russians.
Trump said Schiff was probably blaming Obama as another way to excuse Hillary Clinton’s loss to Trump in 2016.
“Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasn’t I a great candidate?” he tweeted.
Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasn’t I a great candidate?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) February 18, 2018
