Trump’s hatred of Barack Obama is long and well-documented, from his attempts to find the “real birth certificate” to his dismantling of anything Obama had accomplished just because it was Obama who had done it. Trump’s insistence that his inaugural crowd was larger than Obama’s set the tone for his whole approach to his predecessor.
Now it seems that his anger has boiled over into insanity. The Great Orange Shitgibbon is calling for the Senate to subpoena the former president:
If I were a Senator or Congressman, the first person I would call to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA, by FAR, is former President Obama. He knew EVERYTHING. Do it
, just do it. No more Mr. Nice Guy. No more talk!
This is the latest in what I would call a coordinated move; he accuses the Obama administration of some unspecified (and unspecifiable) “Obamagate,” at the same time as Moscow Mitch complains that the Obama administration left Trump unprepared to handle a pandemic. Next step is to put Obama under oath (much like Hillary in “Beghazigate”) and grill him until he cracks and pleads for mercy.
Of course, we all know that’s not going to happen. First, I think even a total toady like Graham would balk at summoning a former president, if only because he knows he’d be setting a precedent for the same thing to happen to Trump (who would, as usual, take it up to the Supreme Court). More to the point, perhaps, is that the GOP remembers how Obama made mincemeat of them the one time the Republican House caucus invited him to meet them at their retreat. Boehner had thought that odds of 240-to-1 would be enough to get Obama; when he discovered he was wrong, he tried to say Obama was not invited but had crashed their party. Trump may refuse to realistic about his predecessor’s skills, but the GOP Senate knows better.
But even so, Trump has several reasons to make this call:
- His base hates Obama, for many of the same reasons Trump does. This tweet is throwing them some red meat. (By the way, the comments to the tweet that I read are not favorable to Trump.)
- Going after Obama is part of going after Biden. Trump is so afraid of Biden that he keeps grasping at straws, and manufacturing straws, anything that might weaken Biden or take him down.
- It’s another distraction from Trump’s abject and total mismanagement of the pandemic.
This all calls for lots of pushback. Not from Obama himself, but from Biden, from the Lincoln Project, from Romney (who is getting visibly exasperated with IMPOTUS), definitely from the Democratic leadership. Feel free to add to the list.
Thursday, May 14, 2020 · 5:57:40 PM +00:00 · Dan K
Sen. Graham has figured out this is not a good idea:
Sen. Lindsey Graham on Thursday brushed back President Donald Trump’s pleas for the Judiciary Committee chairman to haul in former President Barack Obama for testimony about the origins of the Russia investigation and the FBI’s handling of the investigation into Michael Flynn.
Just moments after Trump appealed directly to the South Carolina Republican on Twitter, Graham reiterated that he does not intend to call Obama before his committee — and he warned of the precedent such an action would set.
“I don’t think now’s the time for me to do that. I don’t know if that’s even possible. I have grave concerns about the role of executive privilege and all kinds of issues,” Graham said in a brief interview. “I understand President Trump’s frustration, but be careful what you wish for. Just be careful what you wish for.” www.politico.com/...