President Donald Trump on Feb. 18 said that Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) is “finally right about something,” referring to comments that the Ranking Member of the House Intelligence Committee made about former President Barack Obama’s lack of response to Russian interference.
Schiff also said that the lack of response by Obama meant that others around the world watched and “determined that cyber is a cost-free intervention.”
Schiff’s comments came on the heels of an indictment of 13 Russian nationals by Special Council Robert Mueller for using social media accounts to sow discord in the United States.
While the findings did not show intentional collusion with any Americans or political campaigns, nor that the Russian efforts changed the outcome of the 2016 presidential elections, it did manage to increase discord between conservative and liberal groups.
The Russians used social media profiles to support both liberal and conservative issues. In one case, after the elections, they organized a pro-Trump and anti-Trump rally simultaneously using social media accounts.
Despite the fact that the Obama administration was aware at the time of Russian efforts to undermine the United States and people’s trust in the electoral system, he didn’t take action to stop it, allowing them and potential other foreign governments to continue their meddling.
Schiff said that the Obama administration should have established a “more forceful deterrent.”
Schiff’s comments gained the praise of President Donald Trump:
“Finally, Liddle’ Adam Schiff, the leakin’ monster of no control, is now blaming the Obama Administration for Russian meddling in the 2016 Election. He is finally right about something. Obama was President, knew of the threat, and did nothing. Thank you Adam!”
Trump followed the tweet, sent on Feb. 18, up with another one:
“Now that Adam Schiff is starting to blame President Obama for Russian meddling in the election, he is probably doing so as yet another excuse that the Democrats, lead by their fearless leader, Crooked Hillary Clinton, lost the 2016 election. But wasn’t I a great candidate?”
Schiff has been among the most vocal in Congress claiming that Trump colluded with the Russian government to win the elections, without providing any evidence for his claims. Over a year of investigations by congressional committees, as well as intelligence and law enforcement, agencies have found no evidence of such collusion.
A House Intelligence Committee memo published earlier this month showed that a key source of the collusion allegations was an opposition research dossier paid for by the Clinton campaign and the Democratic National Committee. The dossier and one of its authors, former British spy Christopher Steele, were used by the Department of Justice and the FBI to obtain a FISA spy warrant on campaign volunteer Carter Page.
Steele had also provided briefings on the content of his dossier to a select number of journalists, including those working for The New York Times, The Washington Post, CNN, The New Yorker, and Yahoo News, UK court documents show. Page has sued Yahoo and the Huffington Post for defamation.
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