A CNN panel show turned into a cable-news cage match Tuesday night after Donald Trump accused former President Barack Obama of treason, without offering a shred of evidence.
Trump baselessly declared that Obama is guilty of disloyalty to his country and even floated the idea of prosecuting him. “It’s there, he’s guilty. This was treason,” he said on Tuesday, in the Oval Office. Many have dubbed the latest salvo from the Trump administration a calculated distraction from the renewed scrutiny over the president’s links to Jeffrey Epstein. A spokesperson for Obama called the allegations “bizarre,” and dubbed them a “ridiculous” and “weak attempt at distraction.”
The topic led to an explosive argument on NewsNight, with host Abby Phillip setting the stage by reacting to Trump’s inflammatory rant. “He’s accusing a former president of treason and on top of that saying, ‘It may not be right, but I’m gonna go after them anyway.’ What is he talking about? And what kind of country are we living in that that is actually what he is doing?” she said.
From there, the table combusted. GOP strategist Brad Todd swerved to Democrats and Russia, prompting a sharp interjection from Phillip: “But it’s been eight years since the immediate aftermath of the 2016 election.”
Former Clinton aide Keith Boykin wasn’t having it. “You’re doing everything possible not to talk about the fact that the president of the United States… just accused a former president of treason and suggested a prosecution… with no evidence!” he shouted.
Todd dismissed him, barking, “You can calm down.” But Boykin snapped back: “No, I’m not gonna calm down!”
“The problem is this is what Trump does,” Boykin added. “He’s talking about President Obama because he doesn’t wanna talk about Epstein.”
Todd claimed that Boykin was “violently” shutting him down.
It comes as Trump is feeling the pressure because the Epstein story refuses to go away. On Tuesday, the flames were fanned by CNN, which unearthed new images and clips that shed new light on the relationship between Trump and the sex offender.
CNN’s KFILE team uncovered two photographs placing the disgraced financier at Trump’s December 1993 wedding to Martha Maples at the Plaza Hotel in New York. The outlet also obtained video footage from a 1999 Victoria’s Secret runway show in New York, where Trump—joined by his future wife, Melania—was seen chatting with Epstein.
Another photo, taken at the October 1993 grand opening of the Harley Davidson Café in Manhattan, shows Epstein standing beside Trump, who has his arms around his young children, Eric and Ivanka, then ages 9 and 11.
It comes after Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard last week alleged that her office had uncovered a “treasonous” scheme by the Obama administration to sabotage Trump’s 2016 election by fueling accusations of Russian interference—allegations that have since been widely substantiated.
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