During campaign seasons, Barack Obama maintains a rather high profile, appearing in Democratic ads and headlining Democratic rallies. There’s no great mystery as to why: The former president remains one of the nation’s most liked political leaders.
But in terms of day-to-day political events, Obama tends to maintain a relatively low profile, steering clear of the arena. In fact, he’s sometimes criticized in progressive circles for not engaging in more partisan and political fights.
There are, however, occasional exceptions. NBC News reported:
Former President Barack Obama’s office issued a rare rebuke of President Donald Trump on Tuesday after the president accused his predecessor of having committed ‘treason’ and rigging the 2016 and 2020 elections.
A written statement issued from a spokesperson for the former president spanned just six sentences, though it said quite a bit.
“Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response,” the statement read. “But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one. These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction.
“Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes. These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio.”
The “document” that Obama’s office referred to was, of course, the bizarre report from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, issued last week, which alleged that Trump’s Russia scandal was the result of a “treasonous conspiracy.” The document was quickly discredited, with independent analyses characterizing Gabbard’s report as, among other things, “ludicrous.”
As for Team Obama’s reference to Rubio, this, of course, reminded the public that just five years ago, the Republican-led Senate Intelligence Committee published devastating findings about Trump’s Russia scandal, at one point literally describing a “direct tie between senior Trump Campaign officials and the Russian intelligence services.”
If Gabbard and her allies want to argue that Trump’s secretary of state, who led the Senate Intelligence Committee at the time, was part of a “treasonous conspiracy” against Trump, they’re welcome to try, though this doesn’t seem like an especially smart idea.
Or put another way, the Obama statement worked because it had reality on its side.
The incumbent president, however, doesn’t seem to care. On Monday, Trump amplified a fake video that appeared to have been created with AI that depicted Obama being arrested in the Oval Office. A day later, in the Oval Office, the Republican explicitly endorsed the Justice Department targeting Obama, suggesting that the former Democratic president is “guilty” as part of a scheme that Trump considers “treason.”
Trump falsely claimed that Obama “has been caught directly” of unspecified crimes, added that his administration found “proof” — which, again, does not exist — that Obama was “seditious” and “trying to lead a coup.” The incumbent concluded, “Whether it’s right or wrong, it’s time to go after people. Obama’s been caught directly. So people say, ‘Oh, you know, a group.’ It’s not a group. It’s Obama.” It’s not Obama. The underlying claims are fiction. Trump’s entire conspiracy theory is rooted in a delusional foundation. What’s less clear is what might happen next. Under normal circumstances, a sitting president accusing his predecessor of “treason” would be a stop-the-presses moment in American politics, but the reaction to Trump’s meltdown was largely muted, in part because so many observers worked from the assumption that the Republican routinely makes bonkers claims, which amount to very little, and his latest absurdities are little more than a clumsy effort to distract attention away from his Jeffrey Epstein scandal. Perhaps. But with the White House pulling the strings at the Justice Department, and Attorney General Pam Bondi effectively positioning herself as a political operative who’s a little too eager to make the president happy, it’s hardly outlandish to wonder whether federal prosecutors might actually try to build a case against the former Democratic president. Around this time four years ago, Charlie Sykes said during an appearance on MSNBC, “A clown with a flamethrower still has a flamethrower.” It’s a quote that came to mind anew this week.
Steve Benen is a producer for "The Rachel Maddow Show," the editor of MaddowBlog and an MS NOW political contributor. He's also the bestselling author of "Ministry of Truth: Democracy, Reality, and the Republicans' War on the Recent Past."
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