NewsNation/World

Actions

Obama says Republicans have ‘racked up enough indictments to field a football team’

Posted at 7:54 PM, Nov 04, 2018
and last updated 2018-11-04 21:55:46-05

WASHINGTON — Former President Barack Obama said Sunday that Republicans have “racked up enough indictments to field a football team” while campaigning for Democrats ahead of the midterm elections on Tuesday.

Obama cast President Donald Trump’s administration and Republicans who control both the Senate and House of Representatives as corrupt.

“All right, so now they’ve had two years of total control in Washington,” Obama said at a rally in Gary, Indiana, while campaigning for Democratic Sen. Joe Donnelly. “What have they done with that power?”

“Nah, nah, nah, it’s not true. They haven’t done nothing. They’ve done something,” Obama said in response to shouted answers from the crowd. “They promised they were going to take on corruption in Washington. Instead, they’ve racked up enough indictments to field a football team.”

“Nobody in my administration got indicted,” Obama said. “Which, by the way, is not that high a bar.”

The football team line is one Obama repeated later in the day at a rally in Chicago, as well as twice on Friday during rallies in Miami and Atlanta.

California Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter and New York Republican Rep. Chris Collins were both indicted in August on unrelated charges.

Hunter was indictedon a series of charges including using campaign funds for personal use and counts of wire fraud, falsifying records, campaign finance violations and conspiracy. Hunter has pleaded not guilty.

Collins was charged with 13 counts of securities fraud, wire fraud and making false statements related to an alleged insider trading scheme. Collins has called the charges “meritless”and also pleaded not guilty.

Four people connected to Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign — Michael Flynn, Paul Manafort, Rick Gates, and George Papadopolous — have been charged, pleaded guilty, or have been convicted at trial as part of a special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into possible collusion between the Russian government and Trump associates, as well as potential obstruction of justice and financial crimes.

Flynn, Trump’s former national security adviser, has pleaded guilty to lying to the FBI and is cooperating with the Mueller investigation. Papadopolous, Trump’s former campaign aide, was sentenced to two weeks in prison for lying to investigators about his contact with individuals tied to Russia during the 2016 campaign. Manafort, Trump’s former campaign chairman, was convicted by a Virginia federal jury earlier this year, and conceded to committing several federal crimes, agreeing to cooperate with the Justice Department, including in Mueller’s investigation. Gates, another former Trump campaign official, pleaded guiltyto two criminal charges in Mueller’s wide-ranging investigation and agreed to cooperate with the probe.

In addition, Trump’s former lawyer, Michael Cohen, also pleaded guilty to eight criminal counts stemming from an investigation by the US Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, including tax evasion and campaign finance violations.