Obama kept quiet on Russian poll meddling: Trump

Washington, Oct. 21: US President Donald Trump has accused his predecessor Barack Obama of keeping “quiet” on the alleged Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential elections despite being advised about it by the FBI before the polls.

He was responding to a question on the Russian meddling in the US elections after a rally in Nevada on Saturday, ahead of next month’s midterm polls.

Russia has denied allegations.

“I’ve already said that. I always say this an you’ve heard me say this many times... President Obama was contacted by the FBI in September, long before the election in November, and they told him there may be meddling by the Russians, and he did nothing about it, because he thought Hillary Clinton would win,” Mr Trump told reporters.

He said the present government has taken adequate steps to “protect” the upcoming elections.

“He ( Obama) did nothing … He didn’t lift a finger — he didn’t spend a dime. We’ve done a lot to protect the elections coming up very shortly.

“But President Obama, people don’t want to the bring it up. The ‘ fake news’ don’t want to bring it up. President Obama was told in September by the FBI that there could be problems with Russian meddling,” Mr Trump said.

He also said that the Russian meddling in the 2016 Presidential elections did not have to do anything with his campaign then.

“It had nothing to do with my campaign. All of the hackers, and … everybody that you see, nothing to do with my campaign. If they are hackers, a lot of them probably liked Hillary Clinton better than me. Now they do. Now they do,” he said.

“The good thing is, every single report, Sen. Richard Burr, head of the Senate intelligence, they said, ‘ Did you see any collusion?’ ‘ No collusion. I’ve seen no collusion whatsoever.’ Very strong. Couldn’t be stronger.