President Trump delivered an immediate verdict on former President Barack Obama’s Democratic National Convention speech, accusing his predecessor of using the machinery of state to try to prevent his election.
“HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GOT CAUGHT,” he tweeted, returning to a familiar theme.
A slew of GOP officials followed Trump in accusing Obama of spying on their 2016 campaign.
“Obama and Biden spied on @realDonaldTrump’s campaign,” wrote RNC Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel. “Then they tried to cover it up. Drain the swamp!”
HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GOT CAUGHT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 20, 2020
Trump then used his predecessor’s Democratic convention speech to claim that Obama had tried to stop Joe Biden running for the White House. Allies followed his lead in trying to drive a wedge between the pair, as supporters delivered coordinated messages across social media.
He tweeted: “Why did he refuse to endorse Slow Joe until it was all over, and even then was very late? Why did he try to get him not to run?”
Trump launched his Twitter attacks before Obama had even finished delivering his speech, which was part assault on Trump’s record and part endorsement of his former vice president.
The barbs marked a resumption of the personal feud between presidents 44 and 45.
Obama delivered, by far, the strongest condemnation of Trump on the third night of the convention.
He said that he hoped his successor “might show some interest in taking the job seriously” but simply treated it as “one more reality show.”
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” said Obama, who recorded his words at Philadelphia’s Museum of the American Revolution. “And the consequences of that failure are severe: 170,000 Americans dead. Millions of jobs gone. Our worst impulses unleashed, our proud reputation around the world badly diminished, and our democratic institutions threatened like never before.”
Trump got his hits before the speech even aired, using a news conference earlier in the day to condemn Obama’s time in office.
“And the reason I’m here is because of President Obama and Joe Biden. Because if they did a good job, I wouldn’t be here,” he said. “And probably, if they did a good job, I wouldn’t have even run; I would have been very happy.”
And critics tried to suggest the former president and vice president had not been as close as they like to suggest, repeating a line that Obama reportedly used when he reminded Biden of the high personal cost of running.
“You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t,” featured in an RNC tweet.
