Donald Trump demanded Sunday morning that former President Barack Obama and former Vice President Joe Biden face jail time for involvement in the Michael Flynn case.
‘It was the greatest political crime in the history of our country,’ Trump said of his predecessor and Biden, the presumed Democratic nominee.
‘If I were a Democrat instead of a Republican, I think everybody would have been in jail a long time ago, and I’m talking with 50 year sentences,’ the president continued in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo that aired Sunday. ‘It is a disgrace what’s happened this is the greatest political scam, hoax in the history of our country. And people should be going to jail for this stuff and hopefully, a lot of people are going to have to pay.’
Biden and Obama reportedly knew about the FBI seeking an investigation into the incoming National Security adviser, and then-administration purportedly requested to ‘unmask’ the identity of Flynn.
Trump lauded the case being dropped against General Flynn, who had already pleaded guilty under oath, and the president called him a ‘hero’ for dealing with the charges.
Donald Trump asserted Sunday morning that Barack Obama and Joe Biden face jail time – at least 50 years – for their involvement in the Michael Flynn case
‘This was all Obama. This was all Biden. These people were corrupt – the whole thing was corrupt, and we caught them,’ Trump said.
During a wide-range interview with Sunday Morning Futures, Trump also said he watched Biden’s response to the allegations that he knew about the investigation and intent to prosecute during his interview with ABC News’ George Stephenopoulos.
‘I watched Biden yesterday – could barely speak,’ Trump criticized of his presumed 2020 Democratic opponent. ‘And he said he didn’t know anything about it and now, it just gets released right after he said that – it gets released he was one of the unmaskers meaning he knew everything about it.’
‘So he lied to your friend George Stephanopoulos,’ the president charged.
morning, where he admitted the FBI briefed him and Obama in early January 2017 – before Trump was sworn in– that they were seeking an investigation into Flynn.
Biden asserted, however, that he didn’t know anything else about the case, including that they intended to prosecute Flynn.
‘I was aware that there was – that they asked for an investigation, but that’s all I know about it,’ Biden said Tuesday morning. ‘And I don’t think anything else – look, think about this: Can you image any other President of the United States focusing on this at the moment when a country is just absolutely concerned about their health?’
‘This is all about diverting attention,’ he insisted. ‘Focus on what’s in front of us. Get us out of this, Mr. President.’
The answer came after Biden had initially denied to interviewer George Stephanopoulos knowing about Flynn.
‘I know nothing about those moves to investigate Michael Flynn, number one. Number two, this is all about diversion,’ Biden initially said. ‘This is a game this guy plays all the time.’
But Stephanopolous said ‘I want to push you’ to Biden and noted that as vice president he was present at a meeting at which intelligence chiefs discussed Flynn having a call with Russia’s ambassador Sergei Kisylak and informed Barack Obama about it.
That prompted Biden’s admission that he knew about the investigation.
Trump also spoke a lot about the federal response to coronavirus with Bartiromo, and was adamant that shutting down the country in the midst of the outbreak has caused deaths on top of those perishing from the disease.
‘People are dying this way too,’ the president asserted in an interview with Fox Business’ Maria Bartiromo.
‘They’re dying with this closure, with this shutdown of the country,’ Trump said of the American people. ‘In their house, in their apartment. Some people are too tough on it. They can’t leave their house.’
The president made these comments during a pre-recorded interview with Bartiromo, who hosts Sunday Morning Futures on Fox Business Network.
Among the coronavirus pandemic, there have been major spikes in the U.S. in calls to suicide hotlines and there has been a rise in domestic violence as several jobs have gone fully remote or work-from-home.
As of Sunday morning, there are more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of coronavirus in the U.S. and nearly 90,000 have died from the disease.
Most states across the country are well into the third month of nation-wide shutdowns and stay-at-home orders – and more widespread loosening of restrictions began last week.