Monday morning, President Donald Trump released several tweets disparaging Hillary Clinton and her associates, Politico reports. The tweets were in response to a Fox News segment about controversies surrounding Clinton’s presidential campaign, as well as about Trump’s accusations that he was spied on during his presidential campaign by the Obama administration.
Was the brother of John Podesta paid big money to get the sanctions on Russia lifted? Did Hillary know?
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017
John Podesta was the chairman of Clinton’s presidential campaign, and a former staffer for Presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama. Tony Podesta, his brother, is a well-known lobbyist who has advocated on behalf of BP and Bank of America in Washington, according to The New York Times.
Tony Podesta was reportedly involved in negotiations with the Senate to end economic sanctions against Russia initiated under Obama in 2016. An employee of Podesta’s lobbyist group denied that this was the nature of the negotiations, however, and said that the lobbying was only about the terms of the sanctions, not an attempt to get rid of them entirely.
Did Hillary Clinton ever apologize for receiving the answers to the debate? Just asking!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017
Trump also referred to a scandal that broke during the election revealing Clinton was given advanced notice of questions she would be asked during some debates. That didn’t happen ahead of any debates with Trump, though—the emails show that she got information about questions before a couple of her primary debates against Bernie Sanders.
Additionally, Trump tweeted about reported surveillance of him and his campaign that took place during the election. About a month ago, Trump tweeted (because what else would he have done) claims that his phones were wiretapped during 2016 Presidential Election by the Obama administration.
.@FoxNews from multiple sources: “There was electronic surveillance of Trump, and people close to Trump. This is unprecedented.” @FBI
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) April 3, 2017
The accusations were denied by an Obama spokesperson (and Joe Biden himself) and have been similarly refuted by James Comey, the director of the FBI. “Multiple sources” have something else to say, however.
Keep in mind that this is all coming from a man who is himself being investigated by the FBI for his connections to Russia. Not sure how Trump thinks he can distract from that by attempting to discredit the United States’s own intelligence agencies, but okay. I guess we’re all just going along with it.