President Donald Trump couldn’t keep his predecessor’s name out of his mouth on Wednesday.
Speaking to reporters at the beginning of a meeting with Italian President Sergio Mattarella, Trump fielded questions about Rudy Giuliani’s attempts to dig up dirt abroad on Trump’s political enemies.
Trump first claimed, as per usual, that Giuliani was merely trying to root out “corruption,” then sounded off about the upcoming Justice Department Inspector General’s report on the FBI’s surveillance of the 2016 Trump campaign.
The President predicted that the report would mention the usual suspects in his “deep state” conspiracy theory (former FBI officials James Comey, Peter Strzok, and Andrew McCabe), then he bizarrely floated former President Barack Obama as one of the culprits.
“Let’s see whether or not it’s President Obama,” Trump said. “Let’s see whether or not they put that in.”
Trump again embraces Rudy, but attempts to paint Ukraine probe as Giuliani's idea pic.twitter.com/jceVVVNvOZ
— Nicole Lafond (@Nicole_Lafond) October 16, 2019
Trump then baselessly claimed Obama was behind the “corruption of the 2016 election” again during a press conference with Mattarella after their meeting.
“There was a lot of corruption. Maybe it goes right up to President Obama,” Trump said. “I happen to think it does.”
Trump claims "corruption" in 2016 election "goes right up to President Obama" pic.twitter.com/YaOBSZr2Gi
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 16, 2019
Trump also attacked Obama when he was defending his decision to pull U.S. troops out of Syria, which has left the Kurds vulnerable to Turkish invasion and weakened their ability to keep ISIS fighters in detention (over 700 detainees have escaped as a result).
“We were the ones that took care of [ISIS], specifically me because I’m the one that gave the order, because when I came in under President Obama, ISIS was a disaster all over that area,” Trump said. “I was the one that got them.”
Trump says ISIS was a "disaster all over that area" in Syria during Obama administration pic.twitter.com/F8Z3qhmCPB
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) October 16, 2019
