The following is an opinion column and NOT SATIRE! (For your entertainment, we do suggest watching the two videos in the last paragraph.)
Washington, DC was plunged into the world of fantasy this week as President Donald Trump, already caught in roughly 18,000 lies by fact checkers, went on an angry tirade against former president Barack Obama, whom he now accuses of “Obamagate … the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA, by FAR.”
While unable to name a specific crime, Trump appears to be mobilizing the Department of Justice and pliable Attorney General Bill Barr to launch a series of investigations into an alleged conspiracy by the Obama White House to “sabotage” his incoming administration using alleged Russian interference in his 2016 election as a pretext. While apparently aimed at Obama, this manufactured scandal is transparently designed and timed to damage Joe Biden in the upcoming election.
Trump is notoriously sensitive about the legitimacy of his election, which all seventeen intelligence agencies, the Department of Justice, and several Congressional committees including the Republican Senate Intelligence Committee unanimously agree was tainted with Russian interference aimed at helping the Trump campaign.
That sensitivity previously led to a failed federal investigation into alleged widespread voter fraud, which was apparently intended to corroborate his claim that 3 to 5 million illegal votes were cast for Hillary Clinton; coincidentally, Trump lost the popular vote by 2.9 million votes. No significant voter fraud was found.
As an aspiring presidential candidate in 2011, Trump, who’s promoted numerous conspiracy theories, launched an equally failed investigation into the legitimacy of Barack Obama’s presidency, claiming that the former president was born in Kenya and therefore ineligible for the office. Trump was the leading proponent of “birtherism,” which has convinced a majority of Republicans to doubt that Obama is an American or a Christian.
Birtherism and Obamagate stand as bookends to the Trump presidency–two unsubstantiated, preposterous, shameless lies aimed at demonizing his opponents, deflecting from his shortcomings, and inflaming his base.
Rather than dignifying “Obamagate” with a response, concerned citizens are encouraged to watch Obama decimate Trump’s birtherism (video) at the 2011 White House Correspondent’s dinner and then enjoy this scene from a vastly superior fantasy (video) while replacing “lions and tigers and bears, oh my!” with “A liar, his tirades, and Barr, oh my!”
Image by twm1340