Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard criticized liberal media outlets for ignoring a declassified report alleging former President Barack Obama and his administration "manufactured" intelligence in order to launch the years-long Trump-Russia investigation.
Gabbard declassified the report on the Obama administration's Russia "hoax" last Friday, revealing "overwhelming evidence" that demonstrates how, after Trump won the 2016 election against Hillary Clinton, then-President Barack Obama and his national security team laid the groundwork for what would be the years-long Trump-Russia collusion probe.
The intelligence chief noted that it was "interesting" to see how the mainstream media had "refused to cover this story at all" this week, and said that their silence on the matter was "deafening."
"It's interesting to see how when they do cover this, they don't actually cover the revelations that these intelligence reports and the evidence that we released actually conveys to the American people," she said Saturday on "Fox & Friends."
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"They simply talk about their criticisms of it or convey Democrat politicians' criticisms, but none of them actually deal with the truth that has been revealed."
Gabbard said there are two reasons why liberal media outlets refuse to talk about the findings revealed in the report.
"Number one is they don't want the American people to know the truth. But also they recognize the mainstream media's complicity in this, that they were fed early lines from this manufactured false intelligence assessment that President Obama ordered, that John Brennan and James Clapper created without any vetting, without any actual journalistic integrity of looking at what they were being fed. They received it and they printed it almost immediately," she added.
The DNI compared the media's current silence on the damning intelligence report to its past role in promoting the "manufactured false intelligence" about Iraq's weapons of mass destruction to garner support for war in the Middle East.
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"And how many did they ever admit that they were wrong, that they failed as journalists?" she questioned. "Really, they didn't. They gave, a couple of them gave some lame excuses. But there's a lot of parallels here for us to take a step back and look at, again, the magnitude of what has been revealed and why it's important to every American, not just Democrats or Republicans, but it really has to do with the foundational principles of our democratic republic and the integrity of that."
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Obama recently responded to the "bizarre allegations" made by the Trump administration in connection with the declassified report, issuing a rare public statement on Tuesday.
"Out of respect for the office of the presidency, our office does not normally dignify the constant nonsense and misinformation flowing out of this White House with a response," Obama spokesman Patrick Rodenbush said in a statement. "But these claims are outrageous enough to merit one."
"These bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction," Obama's spokesman continued. "Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes."
He added: "These findings were affirmed in a 2020 report by the bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee, led by then-Chairman Marco Rubio."
Gabbard commented on Obama's response to the declassification of the Trump-Russia report during her appearance on "Fox & Friends" Saturday, arguing that his "carefully worded" response "deflects away from addressing any of the truth that was revealed."
