© REUTERS/Carlos Barria
Den tidligere præsident optrådte i 60 minutter for at promovere sin nye erindringsbog, 'A Promised Land', men interviewet syntes at fokusere mere på hans synspunkter på den nuværende administration. Ifølge Obama har Trump 'fremskyndet' følelsen af, at 'vi ikke kun behøver at fortælle sandheden, men sandheden betyder ikke engang noget.'
Demokraten hævdede, at Trumps nægtelse af at indrømme valget i 2020 afslører uhyggelige karaktertræk i den siddende republikaner. Han beskyldte Trump for at tro, at 'bogstaveligt talt alt går og er berettiget for at få magt' og tilføjede, at en sådan afskyelig filosofi ikke er 'unik' for den amerikanske leder.
Der er stærke mænd og diktatorer rundt om i verden, der mener, at 'jeg kan gøre alt for at forblive ved magten. Jeg kan dræbe mennesker. Jeg kan kaste dem i fængsel. Jeg kan køre falske valg. Jeg kan undertrykke journalister'Obama udtrykte håb om, at den formodede valgte præsident Joe Biden ville bekræfte over for verden, at Washington stadig har 'værdier'.
Who spied on journalists, again? Obama urged to self-reflect after accusing Trump of acting like a power-hungry dictator
Reacting to his inflammatory remarks, social media users referred back to Obama's own White House term, noting that the ex-president might know a thing or two about "suppressing journalists."
"Obama tapped 20 Associated Press office phone lines and the homes and phones of reporters. Trump tweets mean things,"noted Hudson Institute senior fellow Rebeccah Heinrichs.
In 2013, the Obama administration seized records of 20 AP office phone lines and reporters' homes and cell phones, without providing notice, as part of a probe into the disclosure of information about a foiled Al-Qaeda plot.
In a fact check article from 2018, the news service said "Trump may use extraordinary rhetoric to undermine trust in the press, but Obama arguably went farther - using extraordinary actions to block the flow of information to the public."
AP also noted that Obama weaponized the 1917 Espionage Act, using it to prosecute more whistleblowers for leaking information to the public than all previous administrations combined.
Commenters were similarly peeved that Obama was never pressed by 60 Minutes about allegations that his administration spied on the Trump campaign.
Others argued he had no standing to suggest that Trump was "killing people" with impunity, given the fact that the former president killed two American citizens in Yemen, alleged terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki and his 16-year-old son, Abdulrahman, despite the fact that neither had been formally charged of any crime. Abdulrahman's 8-year-old sister was killed in a US raid in Yemen several months after Trump took office.
Still, some Twitter users were clearly elated by Obama's fighting words, insisting that the ex-president "humiliated" Trump without even trying.
Kommentar: Once again we see the incredible level of hypocrisy and negative projection (of one's own faults) by the likes of Obama and his cadre of pathocrats. Unfortunately, however, is the fact that not only is the media not calling him out on such misleading rhetoric, but a good portion of US citizens actually buy into Obama's shtick.
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