Barack Obama posted a short message after a series of attacks from Donald Trump over what the president has called “Obamagate,” a scandal that Trump has so far declined to offer details about.
Obama’s one-word response to Trump was “vote.”
The tweet from Obama came after days of attacks from Trump, which included a series of tweets Thursday that accused the former president of having committed crimes. While Obama did not mention Trump directly in his message, which was also shared on Facebook and Instagram, it followed in Obama’s past responses to attacks from opponents by telling people to focus their energy on voting rather than engaging in arguments.
Earlier on Thursday, Trump had asked Republican senators to call Obama to testify over unexplained wrongdoing that appeared to be related to the Russia investigation. Trump singled out Sen. Lindsey Graham, chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee, which is investigating the origin of the FBI’s inquiry into Russian interference in the 2016 election.
“If I were a Senator or Congressman, the first person I would call to testify about the biggest political crime and scandal in the history of the USA, by FAR, is former President Obama,” Trump tweeted . “He knew EVERYTHING.”
But Graham put off Trump’s suggestion, releasing a statement saying that while his committee was planning to provide oversight on everything related to the Russia investigation, he was not keen on calling Obama as he believed it would set a bad precedent.
“I am greatly concerned about the precedent that would be set by calling a former president for oversight,” Graham said in a statement, via USA Today . “No president is above the law. However, the presidency has executive privilege claims against other branches of government.”
As The Inquisitr reported earlier in the week, Trump declined to offer details on the crime he claims that Obama has committed. After Trump had tweeted that Obama was responsible for the “biggest political crime in American history,” a reporter pressed Trump to describe exactly what crime he believed the former president had committed. Trump did not answer directly, instead saying that the “crime is very obvious to everybody.”
Many believe that Trump’s attacks on Obama are related to the Department of Justice’s prosecution of former National Security Advisor Michael Flynn, who had pleaded guilty to lying about his contacts with Russia. The Justice Department announced earlier this month that it was dropping its case against Flynn.