Former President Barack ObamaBarack Hussein Obama4 ways Hillary looms over the 2020 race Obama goes viral after sporting black bomber jacket with '44' on sleeve at basketball game Obama attends UNC-Duke basketball game MORE made it clear to President Trump that “he wasn’t exactly a fan” of ousted national security adviser Michael Flynn, White House press secretary Sean Spicer acknowledged Monday.
But Spicer said Trump chalked up the statement to different views and partisan politics because of Flynn’s criticism of Obama’s "lack of strategy" on counterterrorism.
The spokesman’s comments confirm multiple media reports detailing Obama’s advice offered privately to Trump in the Oval Office after the 2016 election.
Flynn was fired in February after just 24 days on the job after it was revealed he misled senior administration officials about his conversations with Russia's ambassador to the U.S., Sergey Kislyak.
“The question that you have to ask yourself really is if President Obama was truly concerned about Gen. Flynn, why didn’t he suspend Gen. Flynn’s security clearance?” he said.