Trump rips Obama hours before summit with Putin

President Trump ripped former President Obama early Monday in a series of tweets hours before a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it,” he tweeted from Helsinki, Finland.

{mosads}“When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!” he added, referring to controversial FBI agent Peter Strzok.

President Obama thought that Crooked Hillary was going to win the election, so when he was informed by the FBI about Russian Meddling, he said it couldn’t happen, was no big deal, & did NOTHING about it. When I won it became a big deal and the Rigged Witch Hunt headed by Strzok!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018

Trump in a subsequent tweet said the nation’s relationship with Russia has “NEVER been worse,” citing “many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity” and the “Rigged Witch Hunt.”

Our relationship with Russia has NEVER been worse thanks to many years of U.S. foolishness and stupidity and now, the Rigged Witch Hunt!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) July 16, 2018

Trump told CBS News in an interview broadcast on Sunday that Strzok’s testimony last week on Capitol Hill was “a disgrace to our country.”

“I watched some of the testimony, even though I’m in Europe, of Strzok. And I thought it was a disgrace to our country. I thought it was an absolute disgrace,” he said. “Where he wants to do things against me before I was even, I guess before I was even the candidate. It was a disgrace. And then he lied about it,” Trump added.

Strzok’s hearing quickly devolved into rancorous partisan bickering after he declined to answer questions about special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian election meddling and possible collusion between Trump’s campaign and Moscow. The president has frequently labeled that investigation a “witch hunt.”

Strzok exchanged text messages critical of Trump during the 2016 campaign with now-former FBI lawyer Lisa Page, with whom he was having an affair. He was removed from the Russia investigation when the messages came to light, but Republicans have targeted him as key to uncovering what they allege was systemic FBI bias against Trump during the campaign. Democrats, however, have called that effort politically motivated.

Strzok was also part of the FBI investigation into former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s private email server.

Trump told CBS News that he’s going into the meeting with Putin with “low expectations.”

“I go in with low expectations,” Trump said. “I’m not going with high expectations.”

“I’ll let you know after the meeting,” he said when asked about his goals. “I think it’s a good thing to meet. I do believe in meetings. … Nothing bad is going to come out of it, and maybe some good will come out.”

Trump also said he may ask Putin about extraditing the 12 Russian intelligence agents indicted on Friday for allegedly hacking the Democratic National Committee (DNC) in 2016 and distributing the documents online.

“I hadn’t thought of that. But I certainly, I’ll be asking about it. But again, this was during the Obama administration. They were doing whatever it was during the Obama administration.”

“I think the DNC should be ashamed of themselves for allowing themselves to be hacked,” he added. “They had bad defenses and they were able to be hacked.”

Trump has promised to press Putin on election meddling, but suggested that there is not much he can do to stop it.

“I don’t think you’ll have any ‘Gee, I did it, I did it, you got me.’ There won’t be a Perry Mason here,” Trump said last Friday, referring to the legal drama from the 1950s and ’60s.