News Desk
Barack Obama in 2016, even as his administration spied on the Trump campaign to build a Russia-collusion case, was claiming there’s no way election results could be influenced.
The comment by the former president was noted on Thursday by talk-radio host Rush Limbaugh after the release of special counsel Robert Mueller’s report concluding there was no collusion between the Trump campaign and Russia.
The Obama Justice Department used a political opposition research document written by a former British agent with Russian contacts and paid for by the Democratic National Committee and Hillary Clinton’s campaign to obtain permission to spy on the Trump campaign.
Obama’s comment came when he was criticizing Trump for the then-candidate’s criticism of issues in the electoral process.
“Every expert, regardless of political party, regardless of ideology, conservative or liberal, who has ever examined these issues in a serious way will tell you that instances of significant voter fraud are not to be found,” Obama said.
“There’s no serious person out there who would suggest somehow that you could even rig America’s elections,” he said.
Limbaugh explained that there was “all kinds of talk, the media was talking about the Russians interfering, the Russians this or that, and Barack Obama publicly stated that it would be impossible.”
“Obama … describes how it would be impossible for the Russians to rig or a foreign power to affect a presidential election. And he describes how it’s too complex. They are state elections. There are states, there are precincts. Voting machines are not attached to the internet. You wouldn’t know. You couldn’t tamper with every precinct election. Where would you go?
“We got the Electoral College that elects people. How would you tamper with this? He made it clear that it’s not possible,” Limbaugh said.
Mueller found Russia made repeated attempts to influence the election but consistently was rebuffed by Trump campaign members.
“But I want to ask you to remember this. When Mueller indicted those Russian troll farms, these Russian organizations that were never, ever going to face trial. They’re in Russia. They’re not gonna be extradited,” Limbaugh said.
“And Mueller releases a bunch of PR indictments, essentially, just to show that there are Russians involved here. Folks, on the day those indictments are announced, Rod Rosenstein did the announcement of those indictments, those 13 Russian troll farms. Do you remember what he said at the end of his press conference? He said, ‘Nothing in these indictments suggests that any American was involved, and nothing in these indictments suggests that a single vote was changed or tampered with.’”
He said: “That was not reported. It was totally ignored. It didn’t fit the narrative. I, of course, have never forgotten it.”
