Obama says he’s ‘troubled’ by GOP officials backing Trump in fake voter fraud claims
Trump 'never admits loss,' Obama told CBS, saying those who 'clearly know better are humoring him.'
Former President Barack Obama is expressing his concerns that Republican leadership in Congress seems to be enabling President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of winning the 2020 presidential election.
“They appear to be motivated, in part, because the president doesn’t like to lose and never admits loss,” Obama told Scott Pelley in a clip from the interview set to air on CBS’ 60 Minutes.
President Obama was influential in the final days on the stump, campaigning in support of the election of his friend and former vice president Joe Biden. More than any other president, he condemned the actions of his successor.
In this new interview, to publicize his forthcoming book, A Promised Land, Obama said that he is “more troubled by the fact that other Republican officials who clearly know better are going along with this, are humoring him in this fashion.”
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“It is one more step in delegitimizing not just the incoming Biden administration, but democracy generally,” he said. “And that’s a dangerous path.”
President Trump built his political career on delegitimizing the Obama presidency. Starting in 2011, he made public remarks, often at conservative events, where he raised doubts that Obama was born in the United States of America, fueling the bogus “birther” movement.
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It was not until the 2016 election cycle that Trump grudgingly admitted that the Democratic former president was born in this country.
Nearly two weeks after the monumental 2020 election, the Trump administration is refusing to turn over key intelligence information to the incoming president as is standard practice. More and more Republicans are joining the chorus echoing that Biden should receive the PDB, or President’s Daily Brief, as a matter of national security.
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Top Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley said on Thursday that Biden should be receiving the classified intelligence briefings. “I would think — especially on classified briefings — the answer is yes.”
White House spokesperson Kayleigh McEnany said the White House is “following all statutory requirements.”
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