Republicans Blame Obama to Distract from Trump’s Betrayal of Our Country

Sharyl Attkisson, opinion contributor and host of Full Measure with Sharyl Attkisson on stations operated by the conservative propaganda outlet Sinclair Broadcast Group, echoed the cries of the Right and Donald Trump as she tried desperately to blame Obama for Trump taking help from the Russians to “win” an election.

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You see, this is really an Obama scandal according to Attkisson’s opinion column in The Hill.

“Now, with special counsel Robert Mueller’s exhaustive investigation over and no Trump official charged with taking part in any Russki scheme, Russian election interference may turn out to be the most persistent scandal of the Obama era.”

Indeed, where we should be focused right now is not on the guy who needed the help of a foreign adversary to get into office with a narrow 77 thousand combined votes from 3 states who lost the popular vote by almost 2 million, but on the guy who has no legitimate scandals who won in a landslide.

“The official reaction to it has begun to unfold as a Keystone Cops-type response by top Obama intel officials. They appear to have been so distracted by political motivations that they lost sight of the very danger they now claim threatens our democracy.”

Of course, this is not at all what happened.

And that is, perhaps, why Ms. Attkisson finds herself so puzzled and why she can claim to believe that Obama waited until after the election to take action after the Democrat “lost.”

Actually, the Obama administration took actions before and after Election Day. Obama took action to secure our election infrastructure, for one. And this is something the Trump administration has refused to do.

In fact, the Trump administration undermined the task force for election protection. This is like getting rid of the cameras and security at the bank you intend to rob, after you successfully managed to cheat your way to being CEO even though you know nothing about banking.

Perhaps Sinclair wants us to forget Putin hating and fearing Hillary Clinton and then President Obama trying to get Republican Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to put democracy ahead of partisanship and winning by cheating, and McConnell refusing Obama’s request to issue a bipartisan condemnation of the Russian interference, Obama was left to do what he could to save our republic without Republican help.

Yes, Obama was tougher on the Russians than Trump.

Obama issued tough sanctions to punish the Russians. He also passed on evidence so that the incoming administration couldn’t hide it.

Republicans don’t want anyone to focus on the fact that their president didn’t actually win this election fairly. He only won with the help of a hostile foreign country. And so they are doing what they always do – blaming Obama, Hillary, and anyone else they can demonize and use as a blinding deflection for their cult.

Rudy Giuliani also tried to blame Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama for the investigation into Trump.

Jason Easley called this out yesterday as Rudy Giuliani tried the exact same conspiracy theory, with zero evidence. Easley wrote, this “is a way of minimalizing and taking attention away from the fact that Russia interfered in the election to help Donald Trump win.

Giuliani also claimed there is nothing wrong with Trump taking information from the Russians to help him win a supposedly democratic election.

“There’s nothing wrong with taking information from Russians,” Giuliani said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.

A reality check: It is unthinkable that a president or anyone else would take help from a foreign adversary to undermine their own country. It is unthinkable not to report the attempted contacts in the first place.

Rep. Abigal Spanberger (D-VA), a former CIA case officer, pointed out on MSNBC that if she had taken information from Russia during her time at the CIA and didn’t immediately report it to law enforcement, ‘that would have been a fireable offense.’

Remember Mitt Romney, former Republican presidential candidate who lost to Obama in 2012 after being caught on tape laughing at half the country with contempt? He also warned then that Russia was our biggest foe, and on this matter he has been proven correct in hindsight. At the time, it seemed he was stuck in a time warp.

Romney’s a Utah Senator now and he issued a statement about the Mueller report and Trump taking information from them saying, “Reading the report is a sobering revelation of how far we have strayed from the aspirations and principles of the founders.”

CNN legal analyst and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara was not impressed by Giuliani’s claim that it’s okay to take information from an adversary in order to win an U.S. election, noting that it’s “an extraordinary statement” to suggest it’s okay to take information on a political opponent from a foreign adversary in the lead up to a campaign.

The desperation of the Republican propaganda machine has reached the point of blaming Obama for Trump stealing an election. This is the equivalent of blaming a store for not catching you when you steal something they had sitting out. You know, because it’s their fault you wanted something you couldn’t get any other way.

Donald Trump got into the White House by nefarious, evil deeds. He did not win a democratic election. He is a thief of the presidency. This is what Republicans do not want anyone to be focused on.

Trump was the top choice of the Russians. They cheated and interfered to get him in the White House, and they didn’t do that for a good time. They have expectations and Trump must be delivering (he has, with McConnell’s help, rolled back sanctions) or else Putin would be dropping some dirt on Trump.

Sarah Jones

Listen to Sarah on the PoliticusUSA Pod on The Daily newsletter podcast here.

Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.

Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.

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