Friends,
Last Tuesday, Trump claimed President Barack Obama committed treason, a crime punishable by death.
Trump’s stooge was Tulsi Gabbard, Trump’s director of national intelligence, who (presumably prodded by Trump) asked the Justice Department to investigate whether officials in the Obama administration faked evidence of Russian efforts to influence the 2016 election.
When Trump was then asked at an Oval Office press availability whom the Justice Department should target in that investigation, he said:
“It would be President Obama. He started it. … This was treason. This was every word you can think of. They tried to steal the election. They tried to obfuscate the election. They did things that nobody’s ever even imagined, even in other countries.”
Trump’s history of baseless charges has earned him a perverse kind of immunity. The more outrageous his claims, the faster they tend to be dismissed.
But words have consequences. Trump is president of the United States. Accusing his predecessor of treason goes well beyond anything he has said before. It is itself treason.
So here’s today’s Office Hours question — one with enormous consequences for the future: Does Trump really believe that Obama committed treason, or does he know that his allegation is a bunch of crap? (Or is Trump telling the truth and Obama is actually guilty?)
I’ll discuss each, briefly, and then ask you for your view.
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