CNN Opinion: What Trump is trying to achieve with 'Obamagate'

CNN ^ | May 16, 2020 | By Julian Zelizer, CNN Political Analyst

[Oldeconomybuyer]

With the nation in the middle of a horrendous pandemic, President Donald Trump has decided to devote much of his time fueling the "Obamagate" conspiracy. Trump went on a Twitter rampage this past week, sharing falsehoods and misleading claims that promote the conspiracy theory that former President Barack Obama led a supposed "coup" to sabotage his presidency.

But when a Washington Post reporter pressed Trump earlier this week to explain what Obama did, the President failed to clarify and said, "You know what the crime is. The crime is obvious to everybody. All you have to do is read the newspapers, except yours."

What's clear is that President Trump is attacking Obama with the goal of discrediting his opponent in 2020: Joe Biden. Trump understands that he will never be a widely beloved public figure -- he is more like the long list of "heels" in professional wrestling who gain their fame by stirring the fans to boo them.

President Trump's response is predictable -- he's going after Obama to undermine the foundation of Biden's reputation. By painting the Obama administration as corrupt and Nixonian, Trump may be trying to cast Biden as a new Spiro Agnew, Nixon's vice president who resigned in 1973 due to a tax evasion scandal.

Of course, the problem is that Obama wasn't corrupt and there isn't evidence that the previous administration was involved in some grand effort to set Trump up as a Russian stooge. Whatever one thinks of his policies and leadership, Obama's administration was also remarkably free from major scandals especially compared with other Presidents in recent times.

The "Obamagate" conspiracy theory needs to be understood in the context of the 2020 election. It is Trump's attempt to rewrite the history.

[Vaduz]

What Trump is trying to achieve with ‘Obamagate’

Treason must be treated with justice.

[yesthatjallen]

Chuck Todd on Meet the Press also did a segment on Trumps' motive for bringing up ObamaGate.

We are seeing a MSM narrative being created.

[RipSawyer]

I’m old enough to recall when the concept of “payTV” was proposed and yes. I believe that was the idea then, pay a small fee and lose the annoying commercials. The reality is vastly more of the time devoted to absurdly annoying commercials and the programming is often as bad as the ads. I would rather watch paint dry than most current programming.

[oldtech]

For those who think there was/is no such thing as Obamagate I guess there’s no point in trying to explain it to them. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist tho. I’m not old enough to remember ALL the presidents since the 30s but Obama sure stands out as the worst one I can remember & we had a couple other bad ones too....but not THAT BAD.

[Cronos]

I don’t watch the news channels and seem to have lost track of this - what exactly is Obamagate? I get that its about Flynn, but no idea what about

[Liz]

STROLL DOWN MEMORY LANE Then-prez Obama’s penchant for appointing “czars” seemed quaint at the time but later we
learned these were his worker bees. They did the dirty work ordered by the Obama principals who were too dumb to do it themselves.

The potential for abuse was breathtaking.......for years the Obama cabal mined the incomparable database of the NSA
which consists of virtually all electronic communications – emails, text messages, everything – launched into the ethersphere.....
staggering numbers of intercepts were monitored by Obama.

But a helpful CNN headline gently reminded readers, “The ‘Obamagate’ conspiracy is based on nothing but routine intel activity.”

Oh well, shucks. If trusting journos say Obamagate is so “routine” then they wont mind if “routine intel activity”
is conducted on a few people over at licensed broadcast TV outlets like CBS, NBC, ABC......and some cable guys at CNN, MSNBC, etc.

And Obama surely wont mind if “routine intel activity” is conducted on him, his children, his family, maybe even Valerie Jarrett and her family.......and so on.

Nanvy Pelosi is also way overdue for some “routine intel activity.”

Not to worry, it’s all just “routine.”