President Donald Trump chimed in with several pointed tweets Wednesday during former President Barack Obama’s speech at the 2020 Democratic National Convention.
Obama’s speech included plenty of jabs at Trump.
“Donald Trump hasn’t grown into the job because he can’t,” the former president said. “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.”
While Obama was speaking, Trump slammed him for allegedly spying on his 2016 presidential campaign.
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“HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GOT CAUGHT!” the president tweeted.
HE SPIED ON MY CAMPAIGN, AND GOT CAUGHT!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2020
Trump likely was referring to the FBI’s surveillance into former Trump campaign adviser Carter Page as the bureau was investigating alleged collusion between the campaign and Russia.
Do you think former President Obama spied on Trump’s 2016 campaign?
Former special counsel Robert Mueller’s report, released last year, said there was no collusion between Trump’s campaign and Russia.
On Wednesday, a former FBI lawyer pleaded guilty to falsifying a document that the FBI used to secure a Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act warrant to spy on Page.
Lawyer Kevin Clinesmith, who was assigned to the Russia investigation as part of his work in the FBI general counsel’s office, admitted he altered an email from the Central Intelligence Agency to make it say Page was not a source for the CIA, even though Page previously had provided information for the agency
The FBI relied on Clinesmith’s information and did not disclose Page’s relationship with the CIA in its application to renew a warrant to monitor Page as a possible foreign agent, according to The Washington Post.
“At the time I believed the information I was providing in the email was accurate, but I am agreeing that the information I inserted into the email was not originally there, and I inserted that information,” Clinesmith said.
In December, the Justice Department inspector general released a report that found significant errors and omissions in the four applications the FBI submitted to the FISA Court in order to get approval to conduct surveillance on Page.
In a second tweet Wednesday, Trump pointed out that Obama took more than a year after Joe Biden, now the Democratic Party’s presidential nominee, jumped into the 2020 race to endorse his former vice president.
“WHY DID HE REFUSE TO ENDORSE SLOW JOE UNTIL IT WAS ALL OVER, AND EVEN THEN WAS VERY LATE?” Trump tweeted.
“WHY DID HE TRY TO GET HIM NOT TO RUN?”
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?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) August 19, 2020
Last year, The New York Times quoted Obama as telling Biden aides to be sure that the former vice president did not “embarrass himself” or “damage his legacy” during the 2020 campaign.
“You don’t have to do this, Joe, you really don’t,” Obama told Biden, according to the Times.
Moreover, a Politico report last week quoted one Democrat as recalling Obama say: “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f— things up.”
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