Obama Not Embarrassed by His Scandals?

Obama said a lot of things over the course of an hour, but I’d like to focus on his claim that, while some people in his administration made mistakes, “We didn't have a scandal that embarrassed us.” This was not the first time Obama claimed his administration was devoid of scandal. Before leaving office he claimed his administration was "probably" the first “in modern history that hasn’t had a major scandal in the White House.” Others in his administration have echoed this “scandal-free” narrative like a coordinated chorus hoping, after repeating it often enough, the people would believe it was true. The sad thing is, many people do believe it.

Obama’s claims always come with a subtle caveat. His administration didn’t have “a scandal that embarrassed us,” or they didn’t have “a major scandal.” But, my favorite nuance from his super-secret appearance in Boston was when he said, "Generally speaking, you didn't hear about a lot of drama inside our White House." He’s right about that point. As I document in my forthcoming book, The Scandalous Presidency of Barack Obama, there were over two dozen scandals over the course of Obama’s presidency, and they were all downplayed or ignored by the mainstream media.

Soon after Obama was elected, his presidential transition got caught up in a scandal surrounding the attempted illegal “sale” of his former Senate seat by former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich, who wanted to profit from what he called “a [expletive] valuable thing.” Obama denied having any involvement in discussions about who might be appointed to replace him, yet he had a wish list of replacements that even included his advisor Valerie Jarrett—whom Blagojevich was willing to nominate in exchange for his being appointed to Obama’s cabinet.

Obama also met with Blagojevich to discuss his Senate seat in a meeting about which a local CBS affiliate published two stories, only to remove both off their website after the scandal broke. This scandal could have undone the Obama presidency before it even started, but after Obama’s historic victory, that was the last thing the media would do, a trend that would continue throughout his presidency.

The media protected Obama from criticism and controversy as aggressively as the Secret Service protected him from danger. But that doesn’t change the fact that Obama’s presidency was the most scandalous in history. Obama may not be embarrassed by Fast and Furious, Benghazi, the IRS scandal, the VA scandal, Solyndra, the OPM hacking scandal, the GSA scandal, the Iran Ransom scandal, Uranium One, or the FISA abuse scandal currently being unraveled, but he should be. And the media should be embarrassed at how they failed the American public by pretending these scandals didn’t exist, or weren’t important.

Obama has now been out of office for more than a year and we’re still learning dirty details about his presidency. In December of last year, Politico published the bombshell report about how the Obama administration stonewalled an investigation of an international drug-trafficking operation of the Iran-backed terror group Hezbollah in order to protect his nuclear deal with Iran. The media outright ignored the story. ABC, CBS, and NBC considered this scandal unworthy of coverage. The Mueller investigation has exposed more about how politicized the Department of Justice became under Obama than it has exposed any collusion between Donald Trump and the Russians, not that the media has taken any interest in that.

Despite a presidency more corrupt than Richard Nixon, many in the media had the gall to claim, upon Obama’s leaving office, he had a “scandal-free presidency.” Paul Blumenthal claimed at The Huffington Post that while scandal “has consumed the final four years of every two-term president in modern history […] Barack Obama’s administration is the exception.” David Brooks wrote in the New York Times, “Obama administration has been remarkably scandal-free.” Such laughable claims have persisted, and many on the left still make and believe this claim. Back in September, liberal CNN commentator Bakari Sellers described Obama as “eight years scandal-free.” Trust me, there are many more shameful examples. So, when Obama says, "Generally speaking, you didn't hear about a lot of drama inside our White House,” he wants us to believe that if the media didn’t report on it then it didn’t happen.

When the media refuses to give us the full knowledge of the character and conduct of our rulers, we get Barack Obama for eight long years. The media presented Obama as a successful, scandal-free president—a massive cover-up unprecedented in the history of modern journalism—and this amounts to an abdication of their duty to the American people to tell us the truth. We expect the free press to serve as an important check on the government. Their failure to do so with Obama is his golden ticket to historical greatness and he clearly recognizes this and is using it to his advantage.

John Adams once wrote, "Liberty cannot be preserved without a general knowledge among the people, who have a right [...] to that most dreaded and envied kind of knowledge, I mean, of the characters and conduct of their rulers." The media denied us the knowledge of Obama’s character and conduct and will continue to do so. If we don’t shine the light on the facts of Obama and his presidency now, the myth of a “scandal-free” Obama administration will be written as fact for the history books.

How long will liberty last if our leaders—and I mean all of them, regardless of party—aren't held accountable?

THE OBAMA YEARS-—UNRELENTING SCANDAL (excerpt)
By Ari Lieberman

<><>Solyndra Scandal – The Obama administration provided ths failing solar company with a $535 million stimulus-funded loan, courtesy of the American taxpayer. Taxpayer money kept pouring in despite the fact that the Office of Management and Budget warned that Solyndra was not a profitable or viable company. But it gets worse. The family foundation of billionaire George Kaiser, an Obama fundraiser, was one of Solyndra’s main investors. Can you say quid pro quo?

<><> Veterans Affairs Scandal - Over 40 veterans needlessly died while waiting to be seen by doctors at a Phoenix VA facility. Another 1,700 veterans were forced to wait for months before being seen by medical personnel. An audit of the VA confirmed that VA officials systematically altered records and appointment schedules in a deliberate and methodical VA scheme to manipulate data to meet fabricated goals.

<><> Operation Chokepoint Scandal – The Obama DOJ utilized the power of big government to pressure banks to cease doing business with industries with which the administration had ideological differences. Gun manufacturers and gun stores were prime targets even though they had not violated any laws. Eventually, the FDIC admitted to misconduct, bowed to pressure and significantly curtailed the discriminatory regulations after affected businesses threatened legal action.

<><> Gibson Guitar Scandal – Armed federal agents executed four search warrants on Gibson Guitar Corp. facilities in Nashville and Memphis, Tenn., seizing guitars, electronic files and other inventory including wood that was purchased in India and Madagascar. The DOJ alleged that Gibson’s had violated an obscure law known as the Lacey Act which made it a crime to violate the environmental laws of another country. Gibson produced an affidavit from government officials in Madagascar stating that Gibson had violated none of that nation’s laws. Gibson also alleged that the DOJ was misinterpreting Indian law. Gibson’s CEO was a major donor to the GOP but his competitors, who purchased the same materials and were not GOP donors, were untouched by Obama’s DOJ. As part of a settlement to drop criminal charges, Gibson was required to pay a $250,000 fine and was required to donate $50,000 to an environmental group. Gibson was eventually able to retrieve its inventory from the clutches of the DOJ.

<><> Fast & Furious Scandal – A scheme concocted by the Obama administration that went horribly wrong. The administration lost track of some 1,400 guns that made their way into the stream of criminal enterprises including those of the Mexican drug cartels. Two of the guns were found at the scene of the shooting of Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry. Attorney General Eric Holder was cited for contempt of Congress for failing to turn over documents relating to the scandal. It was the first time Congress had taken such an action against a sitting Cabinet official. Seventeen Democrats joined Republicans in voting in favor of the criminal contempt resolution.

<><> Eric Holder’s DOJ-James Rosen Scandal – FOX News journalist, James Rosen became the target of Obama’s DOJ in yet another example of extreme government overreaching. Believing that Rosen was responsible for a leak concerning a policy decision on North Korea, AG Eric Holder sought a subpoena for Rosen’s emails claiming that Rosen had broken the law “at the very least, either as an aider, abettor and/or co-conspirator.” The government’s affidavit also accused Rosen of possibly violating the Espionage Act. It appeared that the DOJ was acting like the East German Stasi in chasing fictitious enemies of the state. In a rare instance of bipartisanship, Holder was roundly criticized from all sides of the political spectrum and Holder himself was later forced to acknowledge that he regretted the episode.

<><>Gruber-Obamacare Scandal – To establish Obamacare’s validity, Obama hired economist and academic Jonathan Gruber to give the plan his seal of approval. Gruber was later caught on video and audio making several disparaging remarks about Americans, stating that Obamacare’s passage rested on the “stupidity of the American voter.” Democrats later tried to distance themselves from him and tried to minimize his role in formulating Obamacare but there was no debating that he was one of Obamacare’s chief architects and was paid nearly $400,000 for his services. Gruber confirmed what most of us already knew; that Obamacare passed as a result of a concerted effort by the administration to deceive the American people.

<><> Skolkovo Scandal – While serving as secretary of state, Clinton oversaw a program meant to “reset” relations with Moscow and improve ties. The program centered around the Russian city of Skolkovo near Moscow with the stated aim of “identifying areas of cooperation and pursuing joint projects and actions that strengthen strategic stability, international security, economic well-being, and the development of ties between the American and Russian people.”

Hillary’s State Dept program transformed Skolkovo into a technology hub akin to a Silicon Valley. Sensitive American technology was transferred to the Russians, substantially enhancing their military and cyber capabilities. The US Army and the FBI concluded that Russia had exploited the program for military applications. The FBI warned American technology companies doing business in Skolkovo that the Skolkovo project was a means by which the Russians would acquire dual use technologies and apply them for military ends. According to investigative author Peter Schweizer, Russian and American companies and individuals involved in the Skolkovo fiasco “had major financial ties to the Clintons.”

Moreover, during the Russian reset period, those entities provided the Clintons with “tens of millions of dollars” in the form of “contributions to the Clinton Foundation, paid for speeches by Bill Clinton, or investments in small start-up companies with deep Clinton ties.”

Benghazi Scandal - U.S. Ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens and three other Americans were killed during an attack on the American consulate office. The Obama administration initially denied that the attack was terror related and instead peddled the now false and discredited narrative that it was triggered by a reaction to an anti-Muslim film. However, emails later confirmed that administration officials were well aware that it was a well-orchestrated, premeditated attack planned by Islamist terrorists and had nothing to do with an internet film. In addition, a congressional committee found that the delay in deploying military assets to the theater, which it attributed to needless bureaucratic bungling, almost certainly cost those men their lives. (hat tip frontpagemagazine.com)

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