Obama compares Trump to dictator, citing treatment of media. But what Obama did to reporters was worse.



Former President Barack Obama compared President Donald Trump to a dictator in a new interview Sunday, bashing Trump's presidential disposition and, in particular, his treatment of the press.

Obama has become increasingly outspoken against Trump in recent weeks, both while campaigning on behalf of Democrat Joe Biden and to promote his forthcoming post-presidential memoir — "A Promised Land" — the first volume of which is being released Tuesday.

What did Obama say?

Obama's critique came during an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes." He was responding to a question from host Scott Pelley, who asked Obama to respond to Trump's allegations of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

"I think that there has been this sense over the last several years that literally anything goes and is justified in order to get power," Obama said.

"And that's not unique to the United States," Obama continued. "There are strong men and dictators around the world who think that 'I can do anything to stay in power. I can kill people. I can throw them in jail. I can run phony elections. I can suppress journalists.' But that's not who we're supposed to be."

"And one of the signals I think that Joe Biden needs to send to the world is that 'No, those values that we preached, and we believed in, and subscribed in — we still believe,'" the former president added.

UNHINGED: Barack Obama -- who droned weddings & targeted journalists -- compares @realDonaldTrump to a dictator who… https://t.co/QYEHrzyWmB
— Steve Guest (@Steve Guest)1605488389.0

What about Obama's relationship with the media?

Although Democrats often pretend to have a fuzzy posture toward reporters, Obama's record of press relations was less than stellar.

In fact, as many Americans may remember, Obama's administration took significant steps to hide information from the press, going so far as to use controversial laws to spy on reporters.

The Associated Press even called Obama's actions more detrimental than Trump's rhetoric against the media.

The Obama administration used the 1917 Espionage Act with unprecedented vigor, prosecuting more people under that law for leaking sensitive information to the public than all previous administrations combined. Obama's Justice Department dug into confidential communications between news organizations and their sources as part of that effort.

In 2013 the Obama administration obtained the records of 20 Associated Press office phone lines and reporters' home and cell phones, seizing them without notice, as part of an investigation into the disclosure of information about a foiled al-Qaida terrorist plot. AP was not the target of the investigation. But it called the seizure a "massive and unprecedented intrusion" into its news-gathering activities, betraying information about its operations "that the government has no conceivable right to know."

Obama's Justice Department also secretly dogged Fox News journalist James Rosen, getting his phone records, tracking his arrivals and departures at the State Department through his security-badge use, obtaining a search warrant to see his personal emails and naming him as a possible criminal conspirator in the investigation of a news leak.

Anything else?

Obama's comments Sunday were the second time he's compared Trump to a dictator just this month alone.

Just before Election Day, Obama blasted Trump over reports that Trump would pre-emptively declare victory on election night.

"He's been coddling dictators for the last four years, and now apparently he says he might declare victory before all the votes are counted tomorrow," Obama said. "That's not something that a leader of a democracy does; that's something a two-bit dictator does."

'Unmasking' probe ordered by AG Barr into Obama-era officials reportedly ends without any charges or conclusive findings



The federal prosecutor tasked with probing the "unmasking" of President Donald Trump's transition team by Obama administration officials has concluded his investigation without finding evidence of any substantive wrongdoing, the Washington Post reported Tuesday, citing unnamed sources familiar with the matter.

What are the details?

Attorney General William Barr assigned U.S. Attorney John Bash in May to look into whether Obama officials had improperly "unmasked" Trump team members — that is, requested their identities be revealed after they were incidentally picked up in the federal government's surveillance of foreign officials.

The matter, now reportedly closed without charges or a report, was already being investigated as a part of U.S. Attorney John Durham's probe into the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, but Barr believed it to be worthy of further consideration.

In a statement announcing the investigation in May, Justice Department spokeswoman Kerri Kupec said: "Unmasking inherently isn't wrong, but certainly, the frequency, the motivation and the reasoning behind unmasking can be problematic. And when you're looking at unmasking as part of a broader investigation — like John Durham's investigation — looking specifically at who was unmasking whom, can add a lot to our understanding about motivation and big picture events."

At the time, newly unsealed documents purportedly showed that several high-ranking Obama officials had submitted unmasking requests for former Trump national security adviser Gen. Michael Flynn — including then-Vice President Joe Biden, then-FBI Director James Comey, and then-Director of National Intelligence James Clapper.

News of the probe's conclusion came as Bash stepped down from his post as U.S. attorney in the Western District of Texas last week to accept a job in the private sector.

At the time, Kupec made a statement, saying, "Without commenting on any specific investigation, any matters that John Bash was overseeing will be assumed by Gregg Sofer." The Washington Post reported that when asked whether Bash's resignation was related to the unmasking probe, Kupec responded, "No, that is not my understanding."

What else?

According to NBC News, Brennan and another unnamed key figure in the unmasking controversy reported that they were not interviewed by Bash or Justice Department investigators as a part of the probe.

"I was never interviewed by anyone in the Department of Justice about unmasking, which was a politically motivated probe initiated by William Barr to please Donald Trump," Brennan told the news outlet.

The New York Times, in its report, added that Bash's findings were handed over to Durham's team, according to Justice Department officials. It is important to note that the Post, which first reported the news about Bash's conclusions, "was unable to review the full results of what Bash found."

It was not immediately clear why a public report about Bash's findings has not been made available by the Justice Department. The Post noted that while not reporting the findings of probes that conclude without criminal charges is not unusual, a public report was considered more likely given the public nature of the investigation.

Why does it matter?

The conclusion of Bash's report without any charges is likely to rankle President Trump as well as Republicans on Capitol Hill who had hoped the Justice Department would expose what they believed to be wrongdoing by the Obama administration in unmasking individuals before and after the 2016 election.

"The big story is the 'unmasking and surveillance' of people that took place during the Obama Administration," Trump tweeted early on in his presidency.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) declared in May that Biden had been "caught red-handed" after the list of Obama officials who had requested Flynn's unmasking was released.

"This is Vice President Biden using the spying powers of the United States to go after a political opponent. He's caught red-handed here. Vice President Biden is caught red-handed eavesdropping on a political opponent's phone calls," Paul said.

President Trump indicates AG Barr has enough evidence to charge Obama admin officials — including Obama and Biden — with spying on his campaign



President Donald Trump appeared to indicate on Thursday that Attorney General William Barr has more than enough evidence to indict members of the Obama administration for spying on the Trump campaign in 2016, including former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden.

What are the details?

During a lengthy and wide-ranging interview with Fox News' Maria Bartiromo Thursday morning — in which the headline news was that he would not participate in a virtual debate — the president also dropped the potential bombshell that the Department of Justice has "plenty" of evidence to go after Obama administration officials.

"These people should be indicted, this was the greatest political crime in the history of our country, and that includes Obama and it includes Biden," the president said.

"These are people that spied on my campaign — and we have everything — and now they say 'we have much more,' and I say, 'Bill, we got plenty, you don't need anymore,'" Trump continued.

"We've got so much, Maria, just take a look at the [former FBI Director James] Comey report, 78 pages of kill, done by [DOJ Inspector General Michael] Horowitz," he added.

"Unless Bill Barr indicts these people for crimes -- the greatest political crime in history of our country -- then… https://t.co/ESjGYbPoOc
— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar)1602159808.0

It was not immediately clear if the president was referring to documents and evidence already made publicly available or to information not yet revealed as a part of U.S. Attorney John Durham's investigation. Durham was tasked by Barr earlier this year with investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia collusion probe.

What's the background?

On Tuesday, Trump authorized the declassification of all government documents related to the Trump-Russia investigation and the email scandal involving 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

"I have fully authorized the total Declassification of any & all documents pertaining to the single greatest political CRIME in American History, the Russia Hoax. Likewise, the Hillary Clinton Email Scandal. No redactions!" Trump said in a tweet.

That announcement followed Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe's declassification of a CIA memo addressed to former FBI Director James Comey and former Deputy Assistant Director of Counterintelligence Peter Strzok.

The memo informed the two officials about "an exchange ... discussing U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton's approval of a plan concerning U.S. presidential candidate Donald Trump and Russian hackers hampering U.S. elections as a means of distracting the public from her use of a private email server."

Ratcliffe also released notes taken by former CIA Director John Brennan that showed that Brennan was aware of the allegations. Brennan wrote: "Cite alleged approval by Hillary Clinton [on 28 July] on proposal from one of her foreign policy advisors to villify [sic] Donald Trump by stirring up a scandal claiming interference by the Russian security service."

Why does it matter?

With the general election in 26 days, any major indictments are unlikely. But should charges be formally announced against a high-ranking member of the Obama administration it would certainly send shockwaves through Washington and across the country.

Here's more on the news:

NEW EVIDENCE: Handwritten notes show Obama admin knew of Russia, Trump collusion LIES from beginning youtu.be