Holding the “Scandal-Free” Obama Administration Accountable

Originally Posted at Free Market Shooter; Authored by Jon Hall

Throughout Obama’s two terms, the subservient and corporate Mainstream Media voraciously praised the “transparent” and “scandal-free” administration at every turn they could muster. CNN, MSNBC, and the usual ilk of cable news mocked and belittled conservative personalities and opinion; shaming Republicans and any right-leaning citizens into a corner. Don’t believe me? In 2010, The Telegraph called Obama out for labeling voters on the other side of the aisle – conservatives – as stupid:

Boiled down, the new Obama message to Americans is: you’re too stupid to overcome your fears… This year, Democrats have embraced with gusto the notion that Republicans, and by extension anyone thinking of voting for them, are dimwits.

For Obama’s eight years, the American public was misled and distracted from a sprawling, historic saga of corruption streaming from the White House.

Is it any wonder the entirely bought-out Mainstream Media attempted to tout the Obama admin as pristine and accountable when Obama’s own efforts to control the media were the “most aggressive” since Richard Nixon? Exposed during the 2016 elections, a number of mainstream journalists were found to have colluded with the Clinton campaign; a morally-devoid action that originated and was made the norm under Obama. Now that the dust has settled and President Trump is whittling away at erasing Obama’s legacy from history, it’s easy to take an impartial and fact-based look at the “scandal-free” Obama administration…

Let’s begin with the better, well-known ones, shall we?

Benghazi

With how absurdly negligent (or willfully malicious) the Obama admin’s actions during the immediate aftermath of Benghazi was, it’s hard to believe this scandal was allowed to quietly fade away.

In spite of eyewitness accounts, Obama’s State Department – run by none other than Hillary Clinton – blamed the infamous Benghazi attack against two U.S. government facilities on an anti-Muslim video… but Clinton said differently in private to the Egyptian prime minister in a phone call:

We know that the attack in Libya had nothing to do with the film. It was a planned attack — not a protest.

No matter how badly the Mainstream Media and Obama administration tried to craft the narrative; years later, only the facts remain. The administration told a different story publicly than they did privately; Clinton’s State Department even ignored pleas for additional security in Benghazi. Four Americans died in “a planned attack” and the response of the administration was to cover it up and lie to save face during election season.

Being among the biggest scandal of the Obama administration, the lives lost in Benghazi vividly showcases the careless and reprehensible behavior top Democrats Obama and Clinton had in regard to human life in order to win the Presidency.

The Iran Deal

What about the time Obama negotiated with terrorists and gave $1.7 billion to Iran in return for the release of four American hostages? According to the New York Post, Ben Rhodes – Obama’s foreign-policy adviser – tricked America into passing the Iran deal:

…senior White House officials gleefully confess they use friendly reporters and nonprofits as public relations tools in the selling of President Obama’s foreign policy… Their greatest triumph… was selling a misleading narrative about the nuclear deal with Iran — the parameters of which were set a year before the administration claimed and which had nothing to do with the fact that a supposedly more accommodating government had risen to power.

Misleading and creating garbage to influence and manipulate the minds of the American public? That sure does sound like fake news to me, which Obama so heartily rails against. The hypocrisy is staggering – Obama was complicit in creating and spreading fake news but acts as the authority against it. Plainly, Democrats are not the party of tolerance but instead of mind-warping double standards.

The NSA Spying Scandal

After Edward Snowden stole and published a cache of sensitive National Security Agency data, the mass surveillance programs monitoring ordinary Americans were exposed. Attorney General Eric Holder thanked Snowden for performing a public service by exposing the mass surveillance but the programs themselves originated under the Obama administration, Holder’s own administration.

Many lies and falsehoods were told by the Obama administration in the wake of the NSA scandal; and, I’m sure, much to Obama’s chagrin, they will never go away. The act the Obama administration was most adept at was cover-ups, obscuring the truth and reality from ever materializing. With no shroud of deception or narrative spinning the incident, history and facts can only confirm the truth.

Spying On The Trump Transition Team

Back in March, President Trump took to Twitter to accuse Obama of wiretapping Trump Tower during the election season. Of course, Mainstream Media flunkies were quick to call Trump’s claim “baseless” and backed by “no evidence”.

However, last month, CNN revealed the Obama administration did wiretap at least Paul Manafort – Trump’s former campaign manager. Notably, Manafort was wiretapped before and after the 2016 election. Who else was swept into potential surveillance is unknown but it’s likely there are more; likely even including the President in some form.

Sure, Trump Tower might not have been wiretapped as the President claimed, but it’s proven – the Obama administration – emboldened by the ability to spy and eavesdrop on average Americans, unmasked a Trump Transition team member in intel and therefore spied on political opponents.

After all, the NSA’s warrant-less and unconstitutional NSA surveillance programs originated under Obama; why should we be so surprised when it turns out he took that gross abuse of power a step further and benefited from unethical, downright treasonous behavior?

Obamacare

Everything Obama used to sell Obamacare to the public was a lie. From Obama’s limp-wristed “If you like your healthcare plan, you can keep it” to promises of reducing premiums that are now skyrocketing as Obamacare enters its death throes. Democrats passed Obamacare into law but knew in advance that co-ops would fail, driving up costs instead of lowering them. Even the launch of the online sign-up system for Obamacare was mired in severe flaws and technical problems; the website – which cost a billion dollars on start-up – cost another billion dollars to fix.

In short, Obamacare was a scam sold and marketed as a comprehensive fix. The premise was built on faulty lies and now, we reap the consequences of disastrously failed healthcare plan; providers are leaving states without coverage and costs reach absurd highs. In terms of a solution, Obama’s answer to healthcare ranks among the most embarrassing in his long list of scandals – after all, he even named it after himself!

Operation Fast and Furious

Fast and Furious was the Obama administration’s plan to use American gun dealers and straw purchasers to arm Mexican drug lords that failed spectacularly and resulted in many people dead.

Again, the administration told a different story publicly than what their aim was. According to Obama’s Justice Department (run by AG Holder), the administration wanted to release guns into the Mexican wild, to track and – in result – arrest the top members of Mexican crime organizations. With how careless and haphazard the program was, this explanation becomes harder to buy.

Notably, AG Holder was the first sitting member of a president’s cabinet to be held in contempt of Congress after not turning over documents related to the investigation into the program. Holder escaped perjury by using incompetence as his defense and claiming he had no idea what was going on under him – even though he was AG.

As reported on FMShooter regarding Operation Fast And Furious:

[Drug lord] El Chapo had quite the arsenal in his hideout before his capture; among the items on hand were a Soviet RPG… South Korean hand grenades… a Barrett M82 .50BMG rifle from the Obama administration’s “Fast and Furious” program.

These are iron clad facts that aren’t often documented in mainstream news coverage, nor are they acknowledged by people like Attorney General Eric Holder and the Obama administration, who started the whole “ninety percent” myth in an effort to push stricter gun legislation in the US.

The program was reckless, irresponsible, and blew up in the Obama admin’s face. The guns were lost, people died, and incompetence was not the reason behind it but willful compliance to skirt the rules and attempt to enact a dangerous plan to reap risky benefits. When malicious intent rules a decision, it cannot be remembered by history as mere incompetence – there is a world of difference between the two…

Looking deeper, we find a few of the lesser-known scandals…

Obama’s Stimulus Package

Obama’s widely-heralded stimulus package was supposed to revitalize an ailing and hurting stock market – but all it resulted in was the abuse and waste of taxpayer’s money. The stimulus cost $836 billion – $49 billion more than planned. Overall, it was a gross misuse of funds. Let’s take a look at where some of the money went, just to put it into perspective:

With your taxpayer money, Obama…

$107 Million Given To Wind Capital Group, Owned By Obama Donor Tom Carnahan, Brother Of Former Rep. Russ Carnahan (D-MO)

…stuffed the pockets of his donors…

$7.1 Million For Ramps In Areas “With No Sidewalks That Are Rarely, If Ever, Used By Pedestrians”

…upgraded infrastructure where it really mattered…

$10,000 For One 10′ x 11′ Sign Touting The Stimulus In Virginia

…spent $10K on a single sign…

$17.4 Million To Expand Broadband Access To Just 30 Potential Customers

…and generally…

$16.1 Million To Save The San Francisco Bay Area Habitat Of The Endangered Salt Marsh Harvest Mouse

…just made…

$15 Million For A Border Crossing That Sees Two Cars Per Day

…terrible decisions with your money…

$7 Million For Central Oregon Forest Clean-Up That Led To The Hiring Of 254 Foreign Workers And No American Workers

$6 Million To Make Snow In Snowy Duluth, MN

$3 Million For A Turtle Crossing

$2.5 Million For The Clinton Presidential Library

Gee – thanks, Obama!

But wait, on top of all that, some of the stimulus money vanished, with no explanation as to where it went. Less than 7% of the stimulus money was spent on infrastructure, when it was billed as being used for modernizing the country’s roads and highways. As if that wasn’t bad enough, Obama had a penchant for funding bad bets with taxpayer funds as well…

Solyndra, et al

Along with giving a $535 million dollar loan to now-defunct solar company, Solyndra, Obama also gave a $118.5 Million Grant To Ener1, which went bankrupt January 2012, and a $43 Million Federal Loan Guarantee To Beacon Power, which went bankrupt in October 2011.

That is an immense amount of money, all gone without a trace – with Obama accountable to nobody for it. With his stimulus, Obama lined the greedy pockets of himself and his friends and fleeced the public dry. With the Obama administration, that’s par for the course.

Spying On Journalists

The Obama administration even spied on the Associated Press. Under Obama, the Department of Justice obtained two months’ worth of phone records for more than 20 different phone lines associated with the news outlet. Although the intrusion was said to be an investigation into a leak that foiled a Yemeni terror plot, that doesn’t make it any more justifiable.

Maybe when Obama promised transparency, he didn’t mean for D.C. – he meant for the homes and computers of American citizens – for me and you. Under the Obama admin, privacy and digital rights were shredded; yet somehow, liberals and leftists forget about Obama’s crass abuse of power against the AP, the NSA scandal; and still tirelessly defend the corrupt and crony admin from any criticism.

The IRS scandal

Under Obama, the IRS was turned into a politicized agency. Tea party members, conservatives, and Republicans were targeted for “extra scrutiny” by the IRS. Of the 426 organizations targeted:

Sixty of the groups on the list released last month have the word “tea” in their name, 33 have “patriot,” eight refer to the Constitution, and 13 have “912” in their name — which is the monicker of a movement started by conservatives. Another 26 group names refer to “liberty,”

After lying to a congressional oversight committee, IRS Commissioner John Koskinen was found to be in direct contradiction with his testimony when 32,000 e-mails in backup tapes related to the scandal emerged. Politically-motivated targeting, done behind the scenes and in secrecy; exactly how much of Obama’s true legacy was enacted.

Bowe Bergdahl

After Army Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl deserted his Afghan post and got captured by the Taliban, Obama released five Taliban leaders in return for Bergdahl’s release from captivity. Susan Rice claimed Bergdahl served “the United States with honor and distinction”. However:

…everyone in the White House and the Pentagon knew this was a lie with monumental implications. In fact, Army officials refused to list Bergdahl as a POW. An internal 2009 Army report found that he walked off his post on more than one occasion and even said he wanted to join the ranks of the enemy. This report also noted he shipped his laptop back to Idaho with a note expressing his disillusionment with the American position in the war.

Understand, however, Obama had all of this information before he made the deal releasing Bergdahl. Why did Susan Rice make the erroneous claim Bergdahl served with honor? Bergdahl deserted his post; his fellow service members started a search for him and in result, some of them ended up with serious wounds – for nothing. Obama, with Bergdahl’s admitted disillusionment, freed five Taliban leaders in return for a turncoat who wanted to join them.

Bergdahl has subsequently plead guilty to desertion and faces life in prison if charged with the maximum sentence of the crime – which he hopefully is.

GSA Spending Spree

In 2012, Martha N. Johnson – administrator of the General Services Administration – resigned after the agency was thrust into controversy. Accused of allowing excessive spending on travel and conferences, Johnson admitted in her resignation that “taxpayer dollars were squandered” by the GSA. As The Daily Signal reports:

Some of the spending included a Las Vegas trip where employees had a $31,000 reception that included a clown mind reader… The organizer of the event, GSA regional commissioner Jeffrey Neely, was photographed in a Las Vegas hotel bathtub with a wine glass. Neely was indicted on three counts of making false claims…

More wasteful, abusive use of taxpayer money in the Obama administration: what else is new?

VA death-lists

Per CNN – and you know it’s bad when they’re reporting it:

At least 40 U.S. veterans died waiting for appointments at the Phoenix Veterans Affairs Health Care system, many of whom were placed on a secret waiting list.

The secret list was part of an elaborate scheme designed by Veterans Affairs managers in Phoenix who were trying to hide that 1,400 to 1,600 sick veterans were forced to wait months to see a doctor, according to a recently retired top VA doctor and several high-level sources.

The Department of Veteran Affairs under Obama willfully deceived the U.S. government with secret waiting lists – resulting in at least 40 U.S. vets’ deaths. Top management at the VA hospital in Phoenix, Arizona knew about the secret lists – and even defended the practice. Dr. Sam Foote, who retired from the Phoenix VA in 2015, exposed the disgusting manner in which the hospital deceived the government:

There’s an “official” list that’s shared with officials in Washington and shows the VA has been providing timely appointments, which Foote calls a sham list. And then there’s the real list that’s hidden from outsiders, where wait times can last more than a year.

That, in itself, speaks volumes. Under Obama’s inaction, veterans died while waiting for care. If veterans dying from preventable causes doesn’t constitute a scandal, I don’t know what would. Still, this abhorrent misconduct is largely ignored by the Mainstream Media and brain-dead leftists – ignorance is bliss, I guess.

…but wait, there’s more! Last, but not least…

Uranium One

Largely ignored by the Mainstream Media, Obama’s newest scandal – the Uranium One deal shepherded by his administration – has taken the limelight. For the uninitiated:

According to government documents and interviews, before approving the controversial Uranium One deal with Russia, the Obama administration participated in bribery, kickbacks, extortion, and money laundering with Russian officials – all with the aim to expand Vladimir Putin’s atomic energy business inside the U.S.

This, and more, comes from a bombshell report from The Hill that details the corruption via eyewitness accounts and internal documents. As early as 2009, emails showed that Moscow compromised an American uranium trucking firm with bribes and kickbacks – which is in direct violation of the Foreign Corrupt Practices act…

…The implications cannot be waved away by simply claiming there was no intent to break the law because there was more than intent – there was action; actions stretched out over a decade of illicit and illegal activity. The Obama administration approved deals that benefited Russia, all the while taking bribes and being extorted. Secretary of State Clinton served with the Obama administration as the deals were approved and millions were funneled into her husband’s foundation.

Along with the treasonous, greedy behavior of the Obama administration, Bill Clinton sought the state’s permission to meet with a Russian nuclear official at around the same time as the Uranium One deal. Although no meetings were set up, The Hill points out that Clinton “instead got together with Vladimir Putin at the Russian leader’s private homestead”. That’s correct, after over a year of projecting onto Trump, the Democrats and Mainstream Media have finally been exposed for the shills they are. They paraded around on moral authority, decrying Trump’s supposed Russian connections but knew, in reality, they were the ones steeped in Russian involvement.

The media and leftists defend Obama and his administration as the end-all, be-all example of a Presidency beholden and accountable to the American people when in reality, Obama and his goons were ethicless, irresponsible, malicious, and treasonous…

So, the next time a liberal rolls their eyes and proclaims Obama as one of the best Presidents of all time when you dare to bring up one of his countless scandals – just roll your eyes right back and tell them exactly why Obama was the first President in U.S. history to completely sell out and betray the American people.