Ari Fleischer: Obama ‘Took More Action To Stop Trump’ Than He Did To Stop Russia

Ari Fleischer speaks during an interview with Reuters in his office in Bedford, New York, U.S. September 7, 2016. Picture taken September 7, 2016. REUTERS/Hussein Waaile - S1AEUAGXIPAB
Virginia Kruta Associate Editor
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Former White House press secretary Ari Fleischer called out the administration of former President Barack Obama on Tuesday, saying that it now looks like they took more actions to prevent President Donald Trump from winning the election than they did to prevent Russia from meddling in it.

As more and more information comes out regarding who knew what and when, it appears that Fleischer may just have a point.

Here are just a few of the steps taken by members of the Obama administration to stop Trump:

  • Susan Rice, national security advisor, unmasked members of the Trump transition team.
  • The FBI had an information source close to the Trump campaign.
  • John Brennan, CIA director, had information about the dossier and allegedly funneled it through unofficial channels to help it get out.
  • James Comey, FBI director, may have “slow-walked” the Clinton investigation — and was convinced to publicly refer to it as a “matter” rather than an investigation — for political reasons.

When it came to preventing Russian meddling in the 2016 election, however, former Vice President Joe Biden admitted that both he and Obama were aware of Russia’s attempts to influence the election — and blamed Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell for not allowing a bipartisan call for Russia to stop.

Biden then claimed that the Obama administration chose to stay out of it in order to make sure that Hillary Clinton was not immediately delegitimized if she were to win.

“The bottom line was, it was tricky as hell. It’s easy to say now, well maybe we should have said more. But I’ll ask you a rhetorical question — can you imagine if the President of the United States called a press conference in October … and said, ‘Tell you what, the Russians are trying to interfere with our elections and we have to do something about it.’ What do you think would have happened?”

In addition, just before Obama left office, then FBI Director James Comey held a meeting with the president, vice president, and Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates on January 5, 2017, to discuss the potential impact of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. The fact that the meeting was even held was not disclosed until a year later.

(RELATED: Ari Fleischer: In A Town Of Grandstanders, Comey Is One Of The Biggest)

Fleischer later added a follow-up that placed the responsibility a little more squarely on the shoulders of the former president.