Trump says Obama committed 'treason' by spying into his 2016 campaign: 'Would've been executed 100 years ago'
President Donald Trump revealed on Monday, June 22, that he believes former President Barack Obama was guilty of 'treason' for spying into his 2016 campaign.
In a wide-ranging interview with the Christian Broadcasting Network, Trump was asked by David Brody, CBN's chief political analyst, what "crime" he thought his predecessor "would potentially have committed" by spying on his campaign in 2016.
"Treason. Treason. It's treason," the president said in response. "They'd been spying on my campaign. They've been taping — a modern-day version of taping — spying on my campaign."
Trump said he had known for the longest time that there had been spying into his presidential campaign.
"Turned out I was right," he said. "Let's see what happens to them now."
The president then praised US Attorney John Durham, who is currently investigating the origins of the Trump-Russia investigation, saying he was looking forward to the results of the probe. He described the Connecticut prosecutor as "highly respected" and even praised Attorney General William Barr.
"I want to stay out of it because otherwise, it's going to look political," Trump said. "Let's see what they come up with. They don't have to tell me."
The POTUS refered to the so-called "insurance policy" of Democrats that they allegedly planned to use if Hillary Clinton did not win the 2016 election, adding that the spying on his campaign to try to find dirt on him was part of that policy.
Trump also spoke of his "rogue's gallery" of people he thought were part of a so-called "deep state" conspiracy to remove him from office.
Among those, he mentioned former FBI agents Peter Strzok and Lisa Page, former CIA director John Brennan and James Clapper, former director of national Intelligence, and James Comey, former FBI director. According to the president, Barr has "got them in his crosshairs."
"If it was the opposite, two years ago, 25 people would have been convicted and they would be sent to jail for 50 years. And by the way, if it were 100 years ago, or 50 years ago, they would have been executed, but we're in a different time," Trump insisted.
"We're in a different time. You understand what I mean by that. They spied on the opposing party's campaign and we caught them." he added.
The president was also asked to clarify if he told his administration to slow down coronavirus testing across the nation.
"No," he replied. "But I think we put ourselves at a disadvantage, I told my people. I said, 'We've gotten so good at testing ... We test much more than any other nation,' so you hear about all these cases."
"So, instead of 25 million tests, let's say we did 10 million tests. We'd look like we were doing much better because we'd have far fewer cases. You understand that," Trump explained. "I wouldn't do that, but I will say this: We do so much more than other countries it makes us, in a way, look bad but actually we're doing the right thing."
Addressing his comments in the Tulsa rally about slowing down Covid-19 testing, the president said they were "semi-tongue in cheek" and asserted that "when you do more testing you find more cases."