Congressional committees in both the House and Senate have “an obligation” to call in former President Barack Obama to testify as to what his administration knew regarding Russia’s campaign to interfere in last year’s presidential election and when it became aware of those efforts, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Tuesday morning.
“Guess what’s about to happen: The Congress is about to have to call Barack Obama in to testify under oath about when he knew about Russia meddling,” Gingrich said on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends.” “Who told him? Why did he do nothing? Who was in the meetings when he decided to do nothing? It’s going to turn out, yes, there’s a big Russian story. It’s Barack Obama. Not Donald Trump. And you cannot make this stuff up.”
Obama’s response to the Russian campaign of cyberattacks has come under increased scrutiny in recent days since the publication of a Washington Post report detailing how and when the former president became aware of the Kremlin’s efforts as well as what retaliatory steps were taken. Obama was first made aware of the Russian cyberattack campaign in August, according to the Post.
Denis McDonough, Obama’s White House chief of staff, defended his former boss’s handling of the attacks in an interview with the Post, but another, unnamed administration official said that the Obama administration had “choked” in dealing with Russia’s interference efforts.
President Donald Trump, consumed by controversy regarding the multiple ongoing Russia investigations, has sought to turn the tables on his political foes by working to shift attention away from probes into whether or not anyone associated with him colluded with the Kremlin and onto Obama’s handling of the cyberattack. Trump has accused his predecessor of willfully doing nothing to stop the Russians so as not to upset the 2016 campaign and Democrat Hillary Clinton’s perceived status as the likely winner.
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