“Pod Save America” host Dan Pfeiffer railed against Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard’s accusations that the Obama administration led a “treasonous coup” over the 2016 election.
“I don’t think we should call this a scandal,” Pfeiffer, a onetime adviser to former President Obama, said in a Friday episode of the podcast. “Like I don’t know what else to call it, a crock of s‑‑‑.”
“They can’t even explain the allegation. It makes no sense,” he continued. “This is the most easily debunked thing in the world.”
Last week, Gabbard released a report claiming that the Obama administration manipulated intelligence to create a false narrative that Russia interfered in the 2016 election.
Gabbard then doubled down on the accusation and unsealed a formerly classified House Intelligence Committee report Wednesday that cast doubts on the Eurasian country’s interest in the 2016 election and his desire to aid President Trump.
She called the Obama administration’s reported actions “the most egregious weaponization and politicization of intelligence in American history.”
Several intelligence reviews have concluded that Russia sought to influence the contest and that President Vladimir Putin favored Trump in the election.
Gabbard, at a White House press briefing Wednesday, claimed that the evidence pointed to Obama as the main instigator of the efforts and said she was looking into possible criminal implications.
Trump backed Gabbard, calling the intelligence assessment “irrefutable proof that Obama was seditious.”
“I guess the crime is the creating a false narrative,” co-host Jon Favreau, former Obama speechwriter, said on the Friday episode. “I didn’t think a false narrative could be a coup.”
The podcast hosts join fellow Democrats in criticizing Gabbard, particularly as fervor grows surrounding the handling of the Jeffrey Epstein files, which Democrats — and even some Republicans — have called to be released.
“It seems as though the Trump administration is willing to declassify anything and everything except the Epstein files,” Sen. Mark Warner (Va.), the top Democrat on the Senate Intelligence Committee, said in a statement.
Favreau, on Friday’s episode, pondered whether the the administration can “will this scandal in to existence by repeating ‘treasonous coup’ over and over again.”
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