Donald Trump demanded Sunday morning that former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden face jail time for involvement in the Michael Flynn case – and the president followed up with a tweet insisting he was elected due to his predecessor’s ‘corrupt’ administration.
‘It was the greatest political crime in the history of our country,’ Trump said of Obama and Biden, the presumed Democratic nominee.
‘If I were a Democrat instead of a Republican, I think everybody would have been in jail a long time ago, and I’m talking with 50 year sentences,’ the president continued in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that aired Sunday. ‘It is a disgrace what’s happened this is the greatest political scam, hoax in the history of our country. And people should be going to jail for this stuff and hopefully, a lot of people are going to have to pay.’
Biden and Obama reportedly knew about the FBI seeking an investigation into the incoming National Security adviser, and then-administration purportedly requested to ‘unmask’ the identity of Flynn.
Trump lauded the case being dropped against General Flynn, who had already pleaded guilty under oath, and the president called him a ‘hero’ for dealing with the charges.
Donald Trump asserted Sunday morning that Barack Obama and Joe Biden should face jail time – at least 50 years – for their involvement in the Michael Flynn case. ‘This was all Obama. This was all Biden. These people were corrupt – the whole thing was corrupt,’ Trump said
The president joined Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo (right) for a pre-recorded interview that aired during Sunday Morning Futures where he issued his sharp criticism of his predecessor and his presumed Democratic competitor
Trump tweeted Sunday afternoon, hours after the interview aired, claiming that he was elected in 2016 because Americans were fed up with Obama’s ‘corrupt’ administration
‘This was all Obama. This was all Biden. These people were corrupt – the whole thing was corrupt, and we caught them,’ Trump said.
Sunday afternoon, Trump followed up with a tweet claiming he was elected because Ameircans wanted something different than Obama and Biden’s administration.
‘The Obama Administration is turning out to be one of the most corrupt and incompetent in U.S. history,’ Trump asserted on Twitter. ‘Remember, he and Sleepy Joe are the reasons I am in the White House!!!’
Trump’s remarks came as Obama lashed out at the president again on Saturday during a virtual commencement speech for graduating high school students.
Obama has remained largely silent in the past on Trump’s actions as president, only issuing veiled indications of disapproval.
In the hour-long televised special, Obama panned ‘so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs’ who do ‘what feels good, what’s convenient, what’s easy.’
‘That’s how little kids think, which is why things are so screwed up,’ the 44th President continued, and while he did not mention Trump by name, there was no mistaking who he meant.
But Trump insisted as he returned to the White House from a working weekend at Camp David that he had not heard the comments from Obama’s commencement address.
‘What about Obama’s comment? Obama’s comment at the graduation ceremony,’ a reporter asked of Trump as he disembarked Marine One on the South Lawn.
‘I didn’t hear it,’ Trump said.
When the reporter tried to describe what the comments were, Trump dismissed Obama as ‘incompetent.’
‘Look, he was an incompetent president That’s all I can say. Grossly incompetent,’ he asserted.
During a wide-range interview with Sunday Morning Futures, Trump also said he watched Biden’s response to the allegations that he knew about the investigation and intent to prosecute during his interview with ABC News’ George Stephenopoulos.
‘I watched Biden yesterday – could barely speak,’ Trump criticized of his presumed 2020 Democratic opponent. ‘And he said he didn’t know anything about it and now, it just gets released right after he said that – it gets released he was one of the unmaskers meaning he knew everything about it.’
‘So he lied to your friend George Stephanopoulos,’ the president charged.
morning, where he admitted the FBI briefed him and Obama in early January 2017 – before Trump was sworn in– that they were seeking an investigation into Flynn.
Biden asserted, however, that he didn’t know anything else about the case, including that they intended to prosecute Flynn.
‘I was aware that there was – that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it,’ Biden said Tuesday morning. ‘And I don’t think anything else – look, think about this: Can you image any other President of the United States focusing on this at the moment when a country is just absolutely concerned about their health?’
‘This is all about diverting attention,’ he insisted. ‘Focus on what’s in front of us. Get us out of this, Mr. President.’
The answer came after Biden had initially denied to interviewer George Stephanopoulos knowing about Flynn.
‘I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn, number one. Number two, this is all about diversion,’ Biden initially said. ‘This is a game this guy plays all the time.’
But Stephanopolous said ‘I want to push you’ to Biden and noted that as vice president he was present at a meeting at which intelligence chiefs discussed Flynn having a call with Russia’s ambassador Sergei Kisylak and informed Barack Obama about it.
That prompted Biden’s admission that he knew about the investigation.
Trump’s comments were aired after Barack Obama took a veiled hit at his successor during a televised commencement ceremony for high school graduates of the class of 2020. He bashed ‘so-called grown-ups, including some with fancy titles and important jobs’ who do ‘what feels good, what’s convenient, what’s easy,’ obviously speaking of Trump
Trump mentioned the meeting where he insisted Obama brought up ‘unmasking’ Flynn – or revealing his identity and the probe into his actions.
‘There was a meeting and oh, by the way, Joe Biden were you asleep in this meeting, as well when you actually were there?’ Trump said in the interview with Bartiromo. ‘And you actually made a request for unmasking?’
‘This is the problem we’re seeing is people are waking up to the real fact there was an attempt to take out a candidate and then a president before he could get going, and the American people should be demanding why every news outlet is not covering this the way you have for the last three years,’ Trump said, praising one of his favorite members of the meda, and one of the only 46 people he follows on Twitter.
‘Many of us have been screaming at the top of our lungs, there was basically a coup attempt at the highest level,’ the president said.
Trump also spoke a lot about the federal response to coronavirus with Bartiromo, and was adamant that shutting down the country in the midst of the outbreak has caused deaths on top of those perishing from the disease.
‘People are dying this way too,’ the president asserted in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
‘They’re dying with this closure, with this shutdown of the country,’ Trump said of the American people. ‘In their house, in their apartment. Some people are too tough on it. They can’t leave their house.’
The president made these comments during a pre-recorded interview with Bartiromo, who hosts Sunday Morning Futures on Fox Business Network.
Among the coronavirus pandemic, there have been major spikes in the U.S. in calls to suicide hotlines and there has been a rise in domestic violence as several jobs have gone fully remote or work-from-home.
As of Sunday morning, there are more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and nearly 90,000 have died from the disease.
Most states across the country are well into the third month of nation-wide shutdowns and stay-at-home orders – and more widespread loosening of restrictions began last week.