'He should have done something about it': Trump tries to lay Russia's election-meddling at Obama's feet
Olivier Douliery-Pool/Getty Images
"Well I just heard today for the first time that Obama knew about Russia a long time before the election, and he did nothing about it. But nobody wants to talk about that," Trump said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends" in an interview set to air this weekend.
Trump's remarks followed a bombshell Washington Post report that revealed details about the Obama administration's response to classified intelligence showing Russia launched cyberattacks to undermine the democratic process and swing the election toward Trump while damaging Hillary Clinton's candidacy.
Trump continued:
"The CIA gave him information on Russia a long time before they even - before the election. And I hardly see it. It's an amazing thing. To me - in other words, the question is, if he had the information, why didn't he do something about it? He should have done something about it."
A senior Obama administration official said that his team "sort of choked" when responding to reports that Russian-linked hackers had tried to influence to the November 2016 election. Other administration officials defended their efforts to the Post.
The FBI and several congressional committees are deep into multipronged investigations of Russia's US-election interference, which are believed to include an FBI inquiry of Trump's possible obstruction of justice in the matter in the wake of his firing of former FBI Director James Comey.
Trump and officials tied to his campaign have repeatedly denied any wrongdoing. The FBI's investigation, led by special counsel Robert Mueller, is underway and, to date, no formal accusations have been leveled against Trump or his team.
- I spent $2,000 for 7 nights in a 179-square-foot room on one of the world's largest cruise ships. Take a look inside my cabin.
- Saudi Arabia wants China to help fund its struggling $500 billion Neom megaproject. Investors may not be too excited.
- Colon cancer rates are rising in young people. If you have two symptoms you should get a colonoscopy, a GI oncologist says.
- FSSAI in process of collecting pan-India samples of Nestle's Cerelac baby cereals: CEO
- Narcissistic top management leads to poor employee retention, shows research
- Audi to hike vehicle prices by up to 2% from June
- Kotak Mahindra Bank shares tank 13%; mcap erodes by ₹37,721 crore post RBI action
- Rupee falls 6 paise to 83.39 against US dollar in early trade