– Touching virtually all of their “progressive” achievements particularly “Obamacare”, foreign policy (Iran), “good government”, the environment, domestic spying and more.
– More will be coming out as various inquiries are finalized and issued
– And talk about obstruction of justice – the Obama /Biden Administration and Inspectors General SCANDAL
You of course heard JoeDumb Biden this week repeating Obama’s own claim near the conclusion of his time in office — words to the effect ~~ not a whisper of scandal ~~
Below are excerpts and links from various sources (some of our selections overlap) indicating more than a share of lawless, high-handed reckless lying behavior by the Obama administration – of course largely ignored by the selectively deaf liberal mainstream media. Visit the links for more fleshing out of each item.
Washington Times:
Former Vice President Joseph Biden says anyone looking to the Obama administration for a “whisper” of scandal will come up empty.
The 2020 presidential hopeful told the ladies of ABC’s “The View” on Friday that his proudest accomplishment while serving the White House is absolute avoidance of scandal.
“The thing I’m proudest of is, coincidentally, we were each in a different part of the country and we were each talking to groups of people that were being televised,” Mr. Biden said. “The same day, purely coincidentally, we were asked, ‘what are you proudest of from your administration?’ You know what I said — he said the same thing as I did. Not one single whisper of scandal. That’s because of Barack Obama.”
“That’s right,” responded co-host Joy Behar. “I know. He’s amazing.”
Conservatives have long argued otherwise regarding the Obama era.
“Mr. Obama has presided over some of the worst scandals of any president in recent decades,” The Heritage Foundation’s Hans von Spakovsky wrote in January 2017. “The president’s journalistic allies are happily echoing the ‘scandal-free’ myth. Time’s Joe Klein claims Mr. Obama has had ‘absolutely no hint of scandal’ in his presidency. The media’s failure to cover the Obama administration critically has been a scandal in itself — but at least the president can’t be blamed for that one.”
The conservative think tank’s partial list of Obama administration scandals include:
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- State Department email: “In an effort to evade federal open-records laws, Mr. Obama’s first secretary of state set up a private server, which she used exclusively to conduct official business, including communications with the president and the transmission of classified material. A federal criminal investigation produced no charges, but FBI Director James Comey reported that the secretary and her colleagues ‘were extremely careless’ in handling national secrets.”
- Operation Fast and Furious: “The Obama Justice Department lost track of thousands of guns it had allowed to pass into the hands of suspected smugglers, in the hope of tracing them to Mexican drug cartels. One of the guns was used in the fatal 2010 shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Congress held then-Attorney General Eric Holder in contempt when he refused to turn over documents about the operation.”
- IRS abuses: “Mr. Obama’s Internal Revenue Service did something Richard Nixon only dreamed of doing: It successfully targeted political opponents. The Justice Department then refused to enforce Congress’ contempt citation against the IRS’s Lois Lerner, who refused to answer questions about her agency’s misconduct.”
- Benghazi: “Ambassador Chris Stevens and three others were killed in the attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Libya. With less than two months to go before the 2012 election, the State Department falsely claimed the attack was not a terrorist attack but a reaction to an anti-Muslim film. Emails from the secretary later showed that she knew the attack was terrorism. Justice Department prosecutors even convinced a magistrate judge to jail the filmmaker.”
- Hacking: “Mr. Obama presided over the biggest data breach in the federal government’s history, at the Office of Personnel Management.”
- Veterans Affairs: “At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at a Phoenix VA facility, many of whom had been on a secret waiting list — part of an effort to conceal that between 1,400 and 1,600 veterans were forced to wait months for appointments.”
“All of these scandals were accompanied by a lack of transparency so severe that 47 of Mr. Obama’s 73 inspectors general signed an open letter in 2014 decrying the administration’s stonewalling of their investigations,” Mr. von Spakovsky added.
Daily Wire:
Obama Says He’s Had A Scandal-Free Administration. Here Are 11 of His Scandals.
1. Operation Fast and Furious.
2. Benghazi.
3. The IRS targeted conservative organizations.
4. The DOJ seized Associated Press phone records as well as phone and email records from Fox News reporter James Rosen.
5. The NSA conducted mass surveillance against American citizens without a warrant.
6. The Obama administration paid ransom to Iran for hostages, and lied to the American people about it
7. Hillary’s email scandal. Clinton’s use of a private email server
8. The Environmental Protection Agency poisoned a Colorado river.
9. The EPA also broke federal law in promoting a regulation. Environmental Protection Agency poisoned a Colorado river.
10. The GSA scandal. The General Services Administration
11. The Secret Service scandal.
ThoughtCo.com (more at the site)
The Biggest Controversies of Barack Obama’s Presidency
- AP Phone Records Scandal
- Illegal Immigrants and Obamacare
- Sequestration and the Federal Budget
- Use of Executive Power
Washington Examiner;
LIST: Obama’s 29 scandals and the media’s campaign to hide them
The Federalist:
Obama Says ‘I Didn’t Have Scandals.’ So What Are All These? (Harsanyi)
As it was, the Obama administration persistently ignored courts and oversight, breaking norms because it was allowed to do so. The president was articulate, friendly, and progressive. He might have executed an American citizen without a trial (not a scandal!), but his contempt for the process could be forgiven.
It’s why Obama could secretly send planes filled with cash to pay a ransom to a terror state (using money earmarked for terror victims) and most reporters and analysts would regurgitate the justification they heard in the echo chamber. One Politico reporter might drop a 14,000-word heavily sourced investigative piece (two officials involved in the program went on the record) detailing how the Obama administration undermined law enforcement efforts to shut down an international drug-trafficking ring run by the terror group Hezbollah operating in the United States, and most major news organizations never even mentioned the piece.
When they did, it was usually to give space to former Obama officials to smear the reporter.
It needn’t be said, but if the names were changed to Trump and Russia, the president would be accused of sedition. But by any conceivable journalistic standard, it’s a scandal that should have triggered widespread coverage. So when we see mass indignation over every single hyperbolic statement from the current president, it’s a bit difficult to buy the outrage.
An Obama official famously bragged to The New York Times Magazine that he could rely on the ignorance, inexperience, and partisan dispositions of reporters to convey administration talking points to help push through preferred policy. Rather than being hurt or embarrassed by this kind of accusation of unprofessionalism, many reporters are more reliant on the same people than ever before.
Yet many professionals who supposedly deplore the authoritarian nature of an administration that doesn’t answer CNN’s questions were generally quiet when Obama spied on reporters. The Obama DOJ spied on the Associated Press in an attempt to crack down on internal leaks. The DOJ tapped around 20 different phone lines—including cell phone and home lines—that snared at least 100 staffers who worked for the outlet. The Justice Department spied on Fox News reporter James Rosen in 2010, collecting his telephone records, looking at his personal emails and tracking his movements. . . .
or, perhaps the most immoral, the Veterans Affairs’ negligence regarding veterans, they would never admit they faced a scandal.
American Thinker:
No scandals? Biden repeats an old Obama whopper (Monica Showalter)
So let’s get this straight here: The Benghazi coverup never happened. The IRS targeting of dissidents never happened, either. The Gold River pollution on traditional Native American lands by the EPA never happened. Solyndra never happened. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton never had an illegal private server in some guy’s bathroom. She never sold 20% of the U.S. uranium supply to Russia, and her bleachbitting of her subpoenaed emails was perfectly scandal-free, as well as her smashing of Blackberries with hammers. The fact that top-secret emails turned up in Anthony Weiner’s perverted computer, for the New York cops to read, was a nothingburger. And if you like your doctor…
Actually, the Obama administration was probably the most scandal-plagued of all administrations, and for one important reason: There was never any housecleaning. Do a bad act and let your Democratic Party affiliation be your protection. I have always suspected that former FBI director James Comey’s exoneration of Hillary Clinton for her private email legal violations was the big thing that made voters break for Donald Trump in 2016. The one set of laws for one elite, and the second set for everyone else, was what got Obama’s team thrown out.
Now we are coming off more Obama scandals from the Mueller report – with President Obama in possession of Clinton’s deleted emails, and questions raised about unmaskings and bad uses of FISA warrants, and Joe Biden brings up the years-old baloney about Obama being scandal free?
Fox News (via Gateway Pundit):
Gov’t watchdogs urge Congress to reverse Obama administration IG crackdown
WASHINGTON – Nearly six-dozen watchdog agencies are asking Congress to step in after the Obama administration clamped down on access to government records they say are vital for their investigations into waste, fraud and abuse.
The Council of the Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency sent an Aug. 3 letter to congressional leaders ahead of a hearing scheduled for Wednesday where they will ask lawmakers to pass legislation reversing a controversial decision made July 20 by the Department of Justice’s Office of Legal Counsel. The OLC is now requiring investigators to get permission to review sensitive documents from the very agencies they are monitoring.
This decision, the letter said, “represents a serious threat to the independent authority” of all inspectors general.
IGs are assigned to audit and conduct internal reviews of federal agencies, and recently have been responsible for investigating the IRS targeting scandal, TSA security gaps, personal email use at the State Department and other issues.
The council represents about 70 IG offices across the government, including for the Federal Communications Commission, the National Security Agency and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. While the July 20 ruling applies to the DOJ, some are worried it will prompt other departments to set similar restrictions.
More On This…
DOJ spokeswoman Emily Pierce countered the claims, saying the ruling still allows investigators to get sensitive information.
“The Department has long held the position that the Inspector General should have access to all the information it needs to perform its essential oversight function,” she said in a statement. “Consistent with this view, Department leadership has implemented procedures to ensure that the Inspector General receives sensitive law enforcement information in a timely manner. Additionally, the Department is committed to working with Congress and the Inspector General on legislation to address any gaps in the law that may hamper the Inspector General’s ability to access such information in a timely manner.”
The 68-page memo makes clear, though, that access IG investigators had in the past involving credit information as well as sensitive grand jury testimony could hinge going forward on whether the department allows it.
On Capitol Hill, Sens. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, and Ron Johnson, R-Wisc., as well as Reps. Bob Goodlatte, R-Va., and John Conyers, D-Mich., said the DOJ rule is a clear violation of the Inspector General Act of 1978.
Grassley accused the DOJ of already denying and delaying IG access related to the notorious “Operation Fast and Furious” scandal as well as “sex parties” involving Drug Enforcement Administration agents.
In the Aug. 3 letter sent to lawmakers, the inspectors general asked Congress to pass a new law that would “unambiguously state and provide what we in the Inspector General community have long understood – that no law or provision restricting access to information applies to Inspectors General unless the law or provision expressly so states.”
“Without timely and unfettered access to all necessary information, Inspectors General cannot ensure that all government programs and operations are subjected to exacting and independent scrutiny,” the letter said. “Refusing, restricting, or delaying an Inspector General’s independent access may lead to incomplete, inaccurate, or significantly delayed findings and recommendations, which in turn may prevent the agency from promptly correcting serious problems and pursuing recoveries that benefit taxpayers, and deprive Congress of timely information regarding the agency’s activities.”
The letter goes on to say the restrictions could “impede or otherwise inhibit investigations and prosecutions” related to agency operations.
The backlash from the July 20 ruling was almost immediate – with the harshest criticism coming from DOJ Inspector General Michael Horowitz himself.
“I strongly disagree with the OLC opinion,” Horowitz said in a statement following the ruling. “Congress meant what it said when it authorized Inspectors General to independently access ‘all’ documents necessary to conduct effective oversight. … Without such access, our office’s ability to conduct its work will be significantly impaired.”
Horowitz, who chairs the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and Efficiency, said the new rules might actually increase cases of fraud, waste and abuse.
The inspectors general of the Internal Revenue Service, U.S. Capitol Police and the Government Printing Office did not sign the letter. Most IGs did.
Gateway Pundit:
HERE IT IS: Complete List of the Many Times Obama Spied on Candidate and President Trump and Numerous Others
HERE IT IS: Complete List of the Many Times Obama Spied on Candidate and President Trump and Numerous Others
(WikiLeaks released the following list on February 23rd (see link here) of Obama Administration wire taps.)* The US National Security Agency bugged a private climate change strategy meeting; between UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Berlin;
* Obama bugged Chief of Staff of UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) for long term interception targetting his Swiss phone;
* Obama singled out the Director of the Rules Division of the World Trade Organisation (WTO), Johann Human, and targetted his Swiss phone for long term interception;
* Obama stole sensitive Italian diplomatic cables detailing how Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu implored Italy’s Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to help patch up his relationship with US President Barack Obama, who was refusing to talk to Netanyahu;
* Obama intercepted top EU and Japanese trade ministers discussing their secret strategy and red lines to stop the US “extort[ing]” them at the WTO Doha arounds (the talks subsequently collapsed);
* Obama explicitly targeted five other top EU economic officials for long term interception, including their French, Austrian and Belgium phone numbers;
* Obama explicitly targetted the phones of Italy’s ambassador to NATO and other top Italian officials for long term interception; and
* Obama intercepted details of a critical private meeting between then French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Merkel and Berluscon, where the latter was told the Italian banking system was ready to “pop like a cork”.In addition to the above list we also noted that Obama wire tapped various individuals in the US media that were reporting information not flattering to the Obama Administration. It is widely known that Obama’s Justice Department targeted journalists with wiretaps in 2013:* In 2013 the liberal Washington Post expressed outrage after the revelation that the Justice Department had investigated the news gathering activities of a Fox News reporter as a potential crime in a probe of classified leaks. The reporter, Fox News’ James Rosen and his family, were part of an investigation into government officials anonymously leaking information to journalists. Rosen was not charged but his movements and actions were tracked.* Also in 2013, members of the Associated Press were a target of surveillance. The ultra liberal New Yorker even noted that “In moderate and liberal circles, at least, the phone-records scandal, partly because it involves the dear old A.P. and partly because it raises anew the specter of Big Brother, may well present the most serious threat to Obama’s reputation.”* Reporter Sharyl Attkisson said in 2014 that her personal computer and CBS laptop were hacked after she began filing stories about Benghazi that were unflattering to the Obama administration. A source who checked her laptop said the hacker used spyware “proprietary to a government agency,” according to an article in the New York Post.Finally, we reported that WikiLeaks tweeted that the Obama Administration spied on their journalists as well:
Now we know that Obama spied on the Trump campaign, Presidency and his team as well.
Shortly after President-elect Trump won the election and before President Trump’s tweets in March 2017 noted above, it was reported that –
On Thursday November 17th, 2016, NSA Director Mike Rogers traveled to New York and met with President-Elect Donald Trump.
It is suspected that Rogers went to Trump Tower unannounced to share with him that he was being spied on. President-elect Trump moved his transition team from Trump Tower to one of his golf courses the very next day after Admiral Rogers’ visit –
President-elect Donald Trump is moving the transition meetings Friday from Trump Tower in New York to Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster, New Jersey, said transition team officials.
By March 22, 2017, it was confirmed by Congressman Devin Nunes that Trump associates were spied on by American intelligence (the Obama Administration) –
Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., whose congressional committee is investigating whether Russia interfered with the U.S. 2016 election, said he had been given access to intelligence reports that confirm Trump’s associates were spied on by American intelligence – operating under the auspices of President Obama.
We know that Trump volunteer George Papadopoulos was spied on my multiple characters from US and foreign entities (none Russian) in Europe in early 2016, long before the FBI said they started their Trump-Russia sham investigation in July 2016. Papadopoulos was set up in his interactions with the Deep State spies in Europe and by Italian, Australian and UK related spies and spy entities all working with the Obama Administration.
We also know that General Mike Flynn, Carter Page, Sam Clovis and other Trump team members were spied on by Stefan Halper, one of the same spies who interacted with Papadopoulos. The Trump team was spied on by others as well.
We know that Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein discussed wearing a wire into the White House. (We really don’t know if he did wear the wire or not.)
We also know that former and now fired FBI Director James Comey met with President-elect and then President Trump and took notes for the sole purpose of spying on Trump. He then leaked his reports to the MSM. President Trump responded with the following –
The MSM again went into overdrive speculating that President Trump had tapes like Nixon did during Watergate. As it turned out the President had no tapes. (What the MSM never asked is whether Comey wire tapped the meetings with Trump and if so, whether Trump knew it when he fired off the above tweet! Time will tell.)
Now this past week we find out that Obama and his Deep State cronies appear to have spied on the President in the White House. The wife of former Chief of Staff to Mike Pence Joshua Pitcock was working for dirty cop Peter Strzok and investigating into Hillary Clinton’s crimes. This comes after it was reported that lovebirds Peter Strzok and Lisa Page were “cultivating sources” to spy and inform them on President Trump.
The Obama Deep State gang of dirty cops and crooked diplomats spied on everybody. The question is – who didn’t they spy on?
V’PAC
At best Napolitano’s comments accusing Trump of “obstruction” reflect a biassed prosecutor’s bent, not proper judicial temperament of analyzing the other side objectively and reflecting on law or precedent and presidential authority. His trading on his former mid-level state judgeship where he may never have had to seriously consider anything like what he accuses Trump of is grandiose and dismissible in its entirety.
The U.S. economy grew at an inflation-adjusted 3.2 percent annualized in the first quarter of 2019, putting it on track to get to 3 percent for the year for the first time since 2005, according to data compiled by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
In the case of Judge Napolitano, it appears that with the takeover of Fox by Rupert’s sons, the very liberal James and Lachlan Murdoch, the self-proclaimed Libertarian has “woke”. In recent months and years, Napolitano has evolved into one of Fox’s most prominent Trump critics. It has been somewhat of a race between “Nappy” and ‘Shep’ and Neil Cavuto to see who will eventually capture the “Maxine Waters Impeachment” trophy first.
McCain and the family Supported Hillary!, if the truth were known…
Joy “The Oink” Behar
DLH