US president Donald Trump has blamed predecessor Barack Obama for anti-government protests that have taken place across the country in recent weeks, in a rare public criticism by a sitting president of his predecessor.
In an interview with Fox News ahead of his address to the joint Houses of Congress on Tuesday night, Mr Trump was asked if he believed Mr Obama was involved in orchestrating recent protests, including tense exchanges between Republican lawmakers and constituents at townhall meetings last week.
“I think he is behind it. I also think it’s just politics. That’s just the way it is,” he said, adding: “You never know what’s exactly happening behind the scenes . . . I think that president Obama’s behind it because his people are certainly behind it.”
Mr Trump also appeared to suggest that Mr Obama was behind government leaks in recent weeks that have led to a series of reports alleging ties between the Trump administration and Russia.
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“Some of the leaks possibly come from that group,” Trump said in a reference to a group called Organising for Action which arose from Obama’s presidential campaigns.
His comments come a day after former president George W Bush delivered a coded criticism of Mr Trump in a rare television appearance. Asked about the current president's recent description of the media as the "enemy of the people", Mr Bush said he considered the media to be "indispensable to democracy".
“We need the media to hold people like me to account. I mean, power can be very addictive and it can be corrosive and it’s important for the media to call to account people who abuse their power, whether it be here or elsewhere.”
Bedrock of freedom
The former Republican president, who did not support Mr Trump during the campaign, but attended his inauguration in January, said that a bedrock of American freedom is “the right to worship freely”.
“It’s very important for all of us to recognise one of our great strengths is for people to worship the way they want to or not worship at all,” he said, adding that he was “for an immigration policy that’s welcoming and upholds the law”.
But he stressed that Mr Trump had only been in office for one month.
“I think you have to take the man for his word that he wants to unify the country, and we’ll see whether he’s able to do so.”
As Mr Trump prepared to deliver one of the most important speeches of his presidency, which is expected to touch on the issue of healthcare reform, senior House Republican Paul Ryan played down reports of divisions between the White House and Republican legislators over repealing the Affordable Care Act, otherwise known as Obamacare.
“You’re going to have a lot of churning on any kind of legislative product like this,” he said during a press conference ahead of Tuesday’s address by the president.
"This is a plan that we are all working on together, the House, the Senate and the White House, so there aren't rival plans."
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