To me, the strangest part of the recent release of documents confirming the involvement of former President Barack Obama and his national security team in essentially cooking up an Intelligence Community Assessment (ICA) that served as the foundation for years of investigations and false accusations against President Donald Trump is how numb so many are to the significance of it. As our Bob Hoge rightly notes:
We’ve been reading about it for years, listened to countless segments on cable news and talk radio, and yet in a way, some people have almost become inured to it. Nothing will ever happen, they say. No one will ever be held to account.
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Gabbard has been making the rounds on the cable news shows since the document disclosure on Friday. She spoke with Sean Hannity on his show Friday evening, and again on “Fox and Friends” Saturday. On Sunday, Gabbard joined “Sunday Morning Futures” host Maria Bartiromo to discuss the disclosure and what we can expect going forward.
The full episode may be viewed here, but here are some highlights, beginning with Gabbard reiterating the big picture implications of what occurred:
“The implications of this are frankly nothing short of historic. Over 100 documents that we released on Friday really detail and provide evidence of how this treasonous conspiracy was directed by President Obama just weeks before he was due to leave office, after President Trump had already gotten elected. This is not a Democrat or Republican issue. This is an issue that is so serious it should concern every single American because it has to do with the integrity of our democratic republic.
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“And so they decided that they would do everything possible to try to undermine his ability to do what voters tasked President Trump to do. So, creating this piece of manufactured intelligence that claims Russia had helped Donald Trump get elected contradicted every other assessment that had been made previously in the months leading up to the election that said exactly the opposite, that Russia neither had neither the intent nor the capability to try to ‘hack’ the United States election for the presidency of the United States.
“So, the effect of what President Obama and his senior national security team did was subvert the will of the American people, undermining our democratic republic, and enacting what would be, essentially, a years-long coup against President Trump, who was duly elected by the American people.”
“So, yes, next week we will be releasing more detailed information about how exactly this took place and the extent to which this information was sought to be hidden from the American people, hidden from officials who would be in a position to do something about it. And that’s really the point here that I think is most important, Maria, and you said it in your opening: Accountability is essential for the future of our country, for the American people to have any sense of trust in the integrity of our democratic republic — accountability, action, prosecution, indictments for those who are responsible for trying to steal our democracy — is essential for us to make sure that this never happens to our country again.”
Bartiromo followed that up by asking Gabbard if she was referring this as a criminal matter and whether we will “ever see anyone held accountable for this incredible lie on the American people.”
Gabbard responded, noting that there are whistleblowers now “coming out of the woodwork.”
“I will do all that I can, and we have whistleblowers, actually, Maria, coming forward now, after we released these documents, because there are people who were around, who were working within the Intelligence Community at this time, who were so disgusted by what happened. We are starting to see some of them coming out of the woodwork here, because they, too, like you and I and the American people, want to see justice delivered.
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It’s understandable that, after all this time and all that has transpired over the past decade, those hoping for the truth to come out and justice to be served have grown weary and somewhat jaded. But based on Gabbard’s comments here, it sounds as though there’s cause to hope that there will be accountability after all.
