Former President Barack Obama&#8217;s CIA director, Leon Panetta, told CNN Monday that President Joe Biden must take &#8220;responsibility&#8221; for the disaster that has unfolded in Kabul, Afghanistan, over the last 36 hours and compared the Biden administration&#8217;s lack of foresight to that of John F. Kennedy&#8217;s failed Bay of Pigs invasion of Cuba.
Panetta, who presided over some strategic operations in Afghanistan during Obama&#8217;s term, suggested that the Biden administration had suffered from a significant intelligence failure.
&#8220;I think of John Kennedy and the Bay of Pigs,&#8221; he told CNN. &#8220;It unfolded quickly and the president thought that everything would be fine and that was not the case.&#8221; 
He then suggested that Biden follow in Kennedy&#8217;s footsteps when handling the fallout from the Taliban takeover of Kabul and take responsibility for what happened Sunday, admitting that there were intelligence failures.
&#8220;President Kennedy took responsibility for what took place,&#8221; Panetta said. &#8220;I strongly recommend to President Biden that he take responsibility &#8230; admit the mistakes that were made.&#8221;
Biden is scheduled to address the nation at 3:45 p.m. EST &#8212; a change from the administration&#8217;s statements Sunday evening, assuring Americans that the president would speak sometime before Wednesday when he was scheduled to return from a vacation at Camp David. Sunday night, the White House had called a lid on communication for Monday, noting, at the time, that Biden would not have any press availability.
That changed Monday morning. Biden&#8217;s team announced around 10 am EST that the president would return early to the White House from Camp David and deliver remarks on the Afghan pullout. The White House address will narrowly edge out speeches from other world leaders on the subject; both Germany&#8217;s Angela Merkel and France&#8217;s Emmanuel Macron have addresses to their respective nations planned for Monday evening.
Panetta is not the first Obama administration official to have harsh words for Biden&#8217;s national security team. Brett Bruen, the director of global engagement for the Obama White House, issued a blistering op-ed in USA Today Monday morning, demanding that Biden &#8220;shake up&#8221; his national security team and fire individuals in his administration who earned their jobs through political allies.
&#8220;President Biden needs to fire his national security adviser and several other senior leaders who oversaw the botched execution of our withdrawal from Afghanistan. He has to restructure how and with whom he is making major foreign policy decisions, allowing for more input from career experts,&#8221; Bruen wrote. &#8220;There should be absolutely no more donors appointed to represent us abroad.  The stakes are just too high. Finally, there is an urgency to repairing the extensive damage done to our reputation and credibility on the world stage.&#8221;
Bruen, like many critics, acknowledged that &#8220;we were always going to pull out&#8221; of Afghanistan but faulted Biden and national security advisor Jake Sullivan for ramping up the timeline for withdrawal without considering the implications of speeding along the process.
&#8220;Unfortunately, it seems [Sullivan] allowed the president’s push for an end to our involvement in the country ahead of Sept. 11 to drive the American timeline,&#8221; Bruen said. &#8220;That was a catastrophic error. Our people were unprepared. We failed to get them out of harm&#8217;s way. The Afghan government and military clearly were not ready either.&#8221;

Key Speakers At The Context Leadership Summit

Obama CIA Director: Biden Must Take ‘Responsibility’ For Afghanistan Debacle, ‘Admit Mistakes’

Joe Biden

Obama Administration

Former Democrat President Barack Obama’s administration reportedly spied on U.S. allies in Europe and top European politicians – including German Chancellor Angela Merkel – by using Denmark’s Defense Intelligence Service (FE).
“The findings are the result of a 2015 internal investigation in the Danish Defense Intelligence Service into NSA&#8217;s role in the partnership,” Reuters <a href="https://news.yahoo.com/u-spied-merkel-other-europeans-144355412.html">reported</a>. “According to the investigation, which covered the period from 2012 to 2014, the NSA used Danish information cables to spy on senior officials in Sweden, Norway, France and Germany, including former German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and former German opposition leader Peer Steinbrück.”
The alleged operation – dubbed “Operation Dunhammer” – allowed the NSA to obtain phone calls, texts, and chat messages to and from the official’s telephones.
Some of the reaction from European officials include:
<ul>
<li>Norwegian Prime Minister Erna Solberg: &#8220;It&#8217;s unacceptable if countries which have close allied co-operation feel the need to spy on one another.&#8221;</li>
<li>French President Emmanuel Macron: “If the information is correct, then that’s unacceptable between allies, and even less so between European allies. We expect complete openness and a clarification of the facts from our Danish and American partners.”</li>
<li>French Minister for European Affairs Clement Beaune: &#8220;These potential facts, they are serious, they must be checked.&#8221;</li>
<li>Former German opposition leader Peer Steinbrück said it was &#8220;grotesque that friendly intelligence services are indeed intercepting and spying on top representatives&#8221; of other countries, adding: &#8220;politically I consider it a scandal.&#8221;</li>
<li>German government spokesman Steffen Seibert: &#8220;The federal government has taken note of the report and is in contact with all relevant national and international bodies for clarification. As a matter of principle, and you already know this, I would ask you to understand that the federal government does not openly comment on matters concerning intelligence activities.&#8221;</li>
</ul>
Reports first surfaced that the Obama administration was spying on U.S. allies in 2013 when it was revealed that they had spied on <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2015/07/03/politics/germany-media-spying-obama-administration/index.html">Germany</a> and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-france-wikileaks/obama-reassures-france-after-unacceptable-nsa-spying-idUKKBN0P32EM20150624">France</a>. The spying on France appears to have started during the latter years of former President George W. Bush’s administration.
CNN <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2021/05/31/europe/denmark-us-nsa-merkel-spying-intl/index.html">reported</a>:
<blockquote>Revelations that the US National Security Agency (NSA) tapped Merkel&#8217;s cellphone emerged in 2013 after former NSA contractor and whistleblower Edward Snowden shared documents with The Guardian showing that a US official had handed the agency 200 phone numbers, including those of world leaders, for the agency to monitor.
The report did not name any of the 35 world leaders that were allegedly on in the list. However, few months after the initial reports, the <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/10/23/world/europe/germany-us-merkel-phone-monitoring/index.html">German government publicly said</a> it had information that suggested the US might have monitored Merkel&#8217;s cell phone. Germany&#8217;s Federal Prosecutor&#8217;s Office launched an investigation into the allegation, but <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2015/06/12/politics/germany-drops-probe-into-spying/index.html">dropped it in 2015</a>, saying it had uncovered insufficient evidence to launch a successful prosecution.</blockquote>
&#8220;The Danish government can and will not comment on speculation in the media concerning our intelligence services,&#8221; Danish Defense Minister Trine Bramsen said. &#8220;The position of the Danish government is clear &#8212; systematic targeting against our close allied partners is unacceptable. Clearly, that is a well-established principle that Danish authorities adhere to.&#8221;

US-POLITICS-INAUGURATION

Obama Administration Used Foreign Intelligence Service To Spy On U.S. Allies In Europe: Report

Denmark

The Department of Justice on Tuesday <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-white-house-adviser-arrested-stealing-218000-charter-schools-he-founded">announced</a> charges filed against former Obama White House adviser Seth Andrew for stealing $218,000 from a charter school he founded. According to prosecutors, Andrew used the funds to lower his interest rate on a luxury apartment in Manhattan.
Prosecutors claim Andrew established &#8220;School Network-1,&#8221; a series of New York City-based charter schools, in 2005. He left the post in 2013 to work in the Obama administration&#8217;s Department of Education and later as a senior adviser in the Office of Educational Technology at the White House.
Between the spring of 2013 and January 2017, Andrew allegedly received a paycheck from School Network-1. He left his post at the White House in November 2016 and ended his relationship with School Network-1 the following January.
Prosecutors claim Andrew pulled funds out of two escrow accounts designed to be emptied only if School Network-1 dissolved. Despite that, prosecutors say Andrew closed two out of the three escrow accounts – without any preauthorization – in March of 2019. When he cashed those escrow accounts, he was provided with two checks, prosecutors say. One was for the amount of $71,881.23, the other for $70,642.98. The checks were made out to two different charter schools.
Andrew allegedly created a fraudulent business account at another bank, where he deposited the checks days apart. According to the Justice Department, Andrew was contemplating taking out a personal mortgage at the time he allegedly emptied the escrow accounts. The bank was offering special incentives and interest rates for keeping a particular amount in their accounts. The charter school funds allowed him to unlock those interest rates.
&#8220;Specifically, for every $250,000 on deposit, up to a total of $1 million, [the new bank] would lower that qualifying customer’s mortgage interest rate by 0.125%.  Thus, in total, if a qualifying customer maintained $1 million or more of his/her funds in [the new bank] accounts that customer would receive a 0.5% interest rate deduction on a &#8230; mortgage,&#8221; a press release explained. &#8220;But to take advantage of the interest rate deduction promotion, [the new bank] required that the funds a customer deposited be funds owned by the customer or, in some instances, a business the customer owned, controlled or was lawfully associated with. [The new bank] did not permit a customer to utilize money owned by someone else to gain the benefit of the interest rate deduction promotion.&#8221;
With the two charter schools&#8217; checks – totaling $142,524 – in the bank account, Andrews&#8217; account balance sat at approximately $1,007,716, meaning he qualified for the special interest rates.
The stolen funds, prosecutors claim, made a drastic difference in the interest rate. Without the more than $142,000 in stolen funds, Andrew&#8217;s interest rate would have been 0.375% higher. Because of the funds, the former Obama official was able to obtain a $1.77 million loan with an interest rate of 2.5%.
Down the road, in late 2019, prosecutors say Andrew closed the third escrow account and received a check for $75,481.10. He opened another fraudulent account at a third bank. This time he deposited the check for $75,481.10, as well as the funds in the first fraudulent account, totaling $144,473.29. Andrew allegedly took the funds, along with more than $2,000 in interest, and rolled them into a deposit certificate, which was then transferred to a bank account under another organization&#8217;s name. The move, prosecutors state, was to &#8220;conceal the money&#8217;s association with School Network-1.&#8221;
“As alleged, Seth Andrew abused his position as a founder of a charter school network to steal from the very same schools he helped create,&#8221; Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement. &#8220;Andrew is not only alleged to have stolen the schools’ money but also to have used the stolen funds to obtain a savings on a mortgage for a multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment.  Thanks to the FBI’s diligent work, Andrew now faces federal charges for his alleged scheme.”
According to the <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2021/04/27/seth-andrew-obama-fraud/">Daily Caller</a>, Andrew&#8217;s wife, who co-signed on the loan, is CBS News anchor Lana Zak.
Andrew is facing charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements to a financial institution. It is unclear if Andrew&#8217;s wife will also face charges.

TOPSHOT-US-VOTE-BIDEN-OBAMA

DOJ Charges Former Obama Adviser For Stealing $218K From A Charter School He Founded

Department of Justice

Fraud

Federal authorities arrested former Obama White House advisor Seth Andrew on Tuesday for allegedly stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from a charter school network he founded.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Andrews’s arrest in a Tuesday <a href="https://www.justice.gov/usao-sdny/pr/former-white-house-adviser-arrested-stealing-218000-charter-schools-he-founded">press release</a>. Andrew is facing charges of wire fraud, money laundering, and making false statements to a financial institution related to a scheme stealing $218,005 from his network of charter schools.
“As alleged, Seth Andrew abused his position as a founder of a charter school network to steal from the very same schools he helped create,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Audrey Strauss said in a statement. “Andrew is not only alleged to have stolen the schools’ money but also to have used the stolen funds to obtain a savings on a mortgage for a multimillion-dollar Manhattan apartment. Thanks to the FBI’s diligent work, Andrew now faces federal charges for his alleged scheme.”
FBI Assistant Director William F. Sweeney Jr. added: “Locking into the lowest interest rate when applying for a loan is certainly the objective of every home buyer, but when you don’t have the necessary funds to put down, and you steal the money from your former employer to make up the difference, saving money in interest is likely to be the least of your concerns. We allege today that Andrew did just that, and since the employer he stole from was a charter school organization, the money he took belonged to an institution serving school-aged children. Today Andrew himself is learning one of life’s most basic lessons – what doesn’t belong to you is not yours for the taking.”
Under former President Barack Obama, Andrew served as a top adviser to the secretary of Education, and later as a senior advisor in the White House Office of Educational Technology. The former White House advisor is married to CBS News anchor Lana Zak.
Andrew founded Democracy Prep Public Schools, a network of charter schools with branches in several states, in 2005. He left the network in 2013, according to an email sent to staff in the wake of Andrew’s arrest and obtained by <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2021/04/27/former-obama-white-house-advisor-seth-andrew-arrested-in-charter-school-theft.html">CNBC</a>.
“Seth left our network in 2013,” wrote Natasha Trivers, current CEO of Democracy Prep. “His alleged actions are a profound betrayal of all that we stand for and to you and your children, the scholars and families that we serve. To be clear, at no time did the alleged crimes pose any risk to our students, staff or operations in any way.”
“The network’s finances remain strong, and at no time did any of the activity by Seth Andrew have any adverse effect on our scholars or the functioning of our schools,” Trivers added.
Andrew allegedly stole out of three escrow accounts for the charter school network that were only supposed to be accessed should the network fail. Andrew allegedly closed out the accounts and withdrew the funds in part to buy a residence in New York, according to the DOJ release.
Andrew “is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, one count of money laundering, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison, and one count of making a false statement to a bank, which carries a maximum sentence of 30 years in prison. The maximum potential sentences in this case are prescribed by Congress and are provided here for informational purposes only, as any sentencing of the defendant will be determined by the judge,” the DOJ release says.

$100 bills

Former Obama White House Advisor Charged With Stealing Over $200K From Charter School Network

Crime

In the latest page President Biden has taken from the Obama playbook, the administration is investing eye-popping dollar amounts into government-run broadband infrastructure, reviving a multi-billion-dollar effort that sputtered and eventually trailed off under the Obama administration.
Biden&#8217;s American Rescue Plan Act, the mammoth $1.9 trillion coronavirus relief bill passed last month, includes $350 billion for state and local governments, with the option to spend some or potentially all of those funds on broadband infrastructure. The <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/house-bill/1319/text">bill</a> states that the $219.8 billion for states and $130.2 billion for localities, split evenly between cities and counties, can be used for assistance to households, small businesses, and nonprofits or for &#8220;necessary investments&#8221; in water, sewer, or broadband infrastructure.
It remains unclear how much of the bill&#8217;s aid to states will ultimately be set aside for broadband, but some states are already looking at devoting substantial amounts of their federal relief dollars to building and enhancing their broadband infrastructure.
“We’re talking about a massive overbuilding of government-run broadband whether or not the community is unserved or underserved. It just lets them spend it with no guardrails,” Tom Schatz, president of the government watchdog Citizens Against Government Waste, said in an interview with The Daily Wire.
In Montana, for example, Republican Governor Greg Gianforte has proposed putting $350 million of the $910 million his state received from last month&#8217;s coronavirus relief bill toward broadband infrastructure. As much as $500 million in relief funds could potentially be put toward the effort, <a href="https://missoulacurrent.com/montana-today/2021/03/broadband-montana-legislature/">according</a> to one state lawmaker.
Meanwhile, Biden has proposed tacking another $100 billion for broadband onto his $2.25 trillion infrastructure package. The massive infrastructure <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2021/03/31/fact-sheet-the-american-jobs-plan/">plan</a> gives preference to government-run broadband networks and makes it unlikely that providers that turn a profit will be able to access the funds.
We have been down this road before. Biden appears to be taking up the mantle of his former boss, who approved federal funding for broadband infrastructure as part of his economic stimulus plan amid the throes of the Great Recession.
In February 2009, former President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, a $787 billion stimulus <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/111th-congress/house-bill/1/text">package</a> that included $7.2 billion for broadband grant and loan programs.
The purpose of Obama&#8217;s broadband stimulus funding was to provide reliable high-speed Internet access to Americans in unserved and underserved areas of the country as well as to stimulate economic growth and job creation, the bill stated. More than a decade later, the Obama administration&#8217;s investments in broadband have turned out to be largely disastrous after a small federal agency, the Rural Utilities Service (RUS), was found to have mismanaged billions of dollars.
Of the broadband funds in the Obama stimulus, $4.7 billion was set to be distributed through the &#8220;Broadband Technology Opportunities Program,&#8221; run by the Commerce Department&#8217;s National Telecommunications and Information Administration. The other $2.5 billion was the purview of the Agriculture Department, under which the RUS operates. Both funding blocks were grossly mismanaged.
In 2011, Jonathan Adelstein, the administrator of the RUS at the time, promised that the agency would use the federal stimulus money to connect nearly seven million rural Americans.
That never happened. Instead, a Politico <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/broadband-coverage-rural-area-fund-mishandled-120601">investigation</a> found that by the summer of 2015, about half of the nearly 300 broadband projects RUS approved thanks to stimulus funding had not yet drawn down all of their awarded funds. More than 40 of the projects had never even begun. Additionally, the broadband projects already underway at the time were fast approaching a September 2015 deadline to draw down all of their cash or they would have to forfeit up to $277 million in federal funds that had not yet been spent, essentially wasting the stimulus funds.
The RUS ended up spending at least $3 billion on the broadband program, making many <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2015/07/broadband-coverage-rural-area-fund-mishandled-120601">expensive errors</a> along the way. The agency at some points built infrastructure for high-speed Internet in well-populated areas rather than in the rural areas it was meant to focus on. At other points, the RUS refused to make any loans, and some projects failed due to poor management.
Even prior to the Obama administration, some government broadband projects had proven ill-starred and costly.
In Utah, for example, Google stepped in to essentially bail out the city of Provo&#8217;s failed experiment in government-run broadband, <a href="https://finance.yahoo.com/news/google-buying-39m-fiber-utah-1-193528420--finance.html">paying</a> the Provo City Council just $1 for the city&#8217;s fiber-optic network, which the government spent $39 million building in 2004. Even with Google&#8217;s purchase, Provo was still obligated to pay off its construction loans.
City officials said the network had become unsustainable. Residents of the small city south of Salt Lake City had been paying $5.35 a month on their utility bills whether they used the internet service or not. The city was requiring a $700 activation fee for basic internet service; Google Fiber lowered that fee to $30.
“Once the government invests, what is their incentive to upgrade? Plus you’ve got maintenance,” Schatz remarked. “Having the government do it is just going to be a waste of money &#8230; It’s a business the government has no business being involved in.”
Some states have already allocated money for broadband projects from the $150 billion Democrats negotiated for states and localities in the CARES Act, the $2.2 trillion coronavirus relief package Congress approved in March of last year. The federal relief, which Republicans panned as &#8220;bailout&#8221; cash for Democrat-run states and cities, was intended, ostensibly, for unexpected pandemic-related costs.
There is also limited transparency around the recent coronavirus fiscal aid to states and localities. The Obama administration attempted to provide some accountability for stimulus funds through its now-archived Recovery.gov website. The CARES Act established a special inspector general and other supplemental oversight, but the exact destinations of much of the pandemic relief remain fuzzy.
Meanwhile, about a trillion dollars in federal aid has not yet been spent, <a href="https://republicans-oversight.house.gov/blog/waste-watch/">according</a> to policy experts and Republicans on the House Oversight and Reform Committee.
“It’s not physically possible to spend this much money this quickly in an efficient and cost-effective manner,&#8221; Schatz remarked. &#8220;Even for the federal government, this is a lot of money.”

Watching Netflix On Television

Biden Revives Obama Broadband Boondoggle

Biden Administration

Coronavirus Relief

Internet

President Joe Biden’s administration is reopening a facility to house migrant children that can accommodate up to 700.
The Department of Health and Human Services released a statement on Tuesday announcing the reopened facility, which it called a “temporary Influx Care Facility.”
“Initially, the Carrizo Springs ICF will accommodate approximately 700 children in hard-sided structures. Additional semi-permanent (soft-sided) capacity may be added if necessary, though ORR will always prioritize placing children in hard-sided structures over semi-permanent structures,” the statement said.
“Semi-permanent (soft-sided) capacity” is a euphemism for “tent.”
The New York Post <a href="https://nypost.com/2021/02/03/biden-administration-to-open-facility-for-migrant-children/amp/">reminded</a> readers that the “Trump administration faced considerable criticism over its use of temporary shelters, also known as ‘tent cities,’ in towns across the southern border.”
Multiple outlets excoriated the Trump administration for the tents, reporting the facilities were a waste of money. NBC News <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/immigration-border-crisis/trump-admin-s-tent-cities-cost-more-keeping-migrant-kids-n884871">reported</a> in June 2018, “Separating migrant kids from their parents will cost the administration more than placing them in permanent structures or keeping them with their parents.”
The sustained criticism of the Trump administration began when a photo and article about kids being kept in cages was circulated on social media to claim then-President Donald Trump was heartless. The photo and the article were actually from 2014, when Barack Obama was president. Nevertheless, Democrats and their media supporters used the migrant facilities as a cudgel against the Trump administration, blasting it for separating kids from families.
The children were separated because they entered the country along with their parents, who were detained for the crime. Instead of sending the children to prison with their parents, the kids were sent to the temporary facilities, which quickly filled up when the economy began to improve.
The HHS’s Office of Refugee Resettlement also said in its statement that it “is mindful of these children’s vulnerability, and our priority is the safety and wellbeing of each child in our care. HHS anticipates the need to start placing children at Carrizo Springs in 15 days or soon after.”
The media is not treating the Biden administration the same way it treated the Trump administration. The New York Times this week <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/01/us/immigration-family-separations-biden.html">reported</a> on the situation with an article titled, “Separated Families: A Legacy Biden Has Inherited From Trump.” The outlet reported that separated families are now demanding “restitution, mental health services and green cards as compensation.”
The Obama administration also separated families, and in 2019, Sam Vinograd, a former member of Obama’s National Security Council, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/former-obama-official-defends-previous-ashe-schow">defended</a> her former boss’ policy, saying the separations were “for their protection.”
“When President Obama separated children from their families, Wolf, or from adults, Wolf, it was for their protection. It was if there was a risk of trafficking or other kind of harm that might have been incurred,” Vinograd said to CNN’s Wolf Blitzer. “But even if he did do that, why is Donald Trump saying that two wrongs make a right? Again, Obama wasn’t wrong, but so he’s saying that because something happened under President Obama, he’s repeating it and upping the ante. That’s an incredibly poor excuse. He’s systemized that inhumane treatment that, again, Obama was doing to protect the children.”
There is zero evidence that absolutely every separation under Obama was to get children away from traffickers and absolutely every separation under Trump was done for whatever racist intentions the media impugns onto Trump. In fact, <a href="http://www.hsgac.senate.gov/download/majority-and-minority-staff-report_-protecting-unaccompanied-alien-children-from-trafficking-and-other-abuses-the-role-of-the-office-of-refugee-resettlement">a Senate report</a> from January 2016, while Obama was still president, found that the Department of Health and Human Services had actually given more than a dozen immigrant children to human traffickers because it failed to adequately conduct background checks.

Tent City

Biden Administration Will Use ‘Semi-Permanent, Soft-Sided’ Structures To House Migrant Children. Trump Was Blasted For ‘Tent Cities.’

Illegal Immigration

Trump Administration

The Senate Homeland Security Committee authorized committee chairman Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) to subpoena 40 people, including many top Obama administration officials, in connection with a Senate probe into the Russian collusion investigation into the Trump campaign.
The committee voted along party lines eight to six on Wednesday to authorize subpoenas for dozens of Obama administration officials as Johnson investigates the origin of Crossfire Hurricane, the FBI investigation into the 2016 Trump campaign. The committee had approved subpoenas for 33 people during a July meeting, but Democrats objected on procedural grounds and forced a new vote on Wednesday that included subpoenas for seven more people, according to <a href="https://dailycaller.com/2020/09/16/ron-johnson-subpoena-stefan-halper/">The Daily Caller News Foundation</a>.
The new additions under Johnson’s subpoena power include Cambridge professor Stefan Halper, who served as an informant to the FBI during Crossfire Hurricane, as well as former Deputy FBI Director Andrew McCabe and Justice Department official Bruce Ohr.
“We are here today … to overcome a ridiculous assertion by the ranking member regarding committee subpoena rules and, while we’re at it, to vote on subpoena authority for seven additional individuals based on new information,” Johnson said at the hearing, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/senate-panel-votes-to-allow-subpoenas-for-stefan-halper-and-his-fbi-handler">The Washington Examiner</a>. “Regarding the committee subpoena rules, Sen. [Gary] Peters has raised a procedural objection based on an absurd interpretation of committee rules. According to Sen. Peters, when the committee authorized deposition subpoenas on June 4, that vote did not include the authority to actually schedule any depositions.”
Peters, the ranking member on the committee, and other Democrats have consistently opposed the probe into the origins of Crossfire Hurricane, alleging that the investigation is politically motivated.
“I’m disappointed that our committee is once again meeting to discuss the authorization of subpoenas instead — let me say that again — instead of the serious challenges facing Americans,” Peters said. “Today, we’re voting on an unprecedented 40 subpoenas to further the chairman’s investigations into Crossfire Hurricane and the unmasking of Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn’s name.”
Rep. Doug Collins, (R-GA) appeared on Fox Business on Thursday morning with host Maria Bartiromo and commended the Senate for approving the dozens of subpoenas against Obama administration officials tied in with Crossfire Hurricane.
“I’m glad to finally see the Senate is issuing these subpoenas. I’m glad to finally see these hearings are taking place. You know, I’ll be honest, I would’ve loved to have seen them earlier because we knew this stuff was coming out, and now it’s taken to September to get them,” Collins said. “But now we have them, let’s get the truth to the American people because you’re right. Every time we peel back the onion, every time I’ve been on your show and many other shows and we’ve talked about it and the left and the mainstream media would make fun of us saying, ‘You’re just on a wild goose chase trying to protect the president.’”
&#8220;Everything we’ve talked about turned out to be true. So it’s time for them now, it is time for the Senate who has that subpoena power to get them under oath, to get them in here,” Collins continued, referring to officials that Johnson now has the authority to subpoena. “It’s time to hold them accountable and Attorney General [William] Barr needs to do that.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
&quot;I&#39;ve never wanted to see a Durham report, I want to see Durham indictments. And I believe there&#39;s more coming.&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/RepDougCollins?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RepDougCollins</a> this morning on with <a href="https://twitter.com/MariaBartiromo?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@MariaBartiromo</a> 
He also says he&#39;ll call on Barr to &quot;use every forensic tool&quot; DOJ has to get at ex-Mueller team phones if needed <a href="https://t.co/FuWbq3AIse">pic.twitter.com/FuWbq3AIse</a>
&mdash; Daniel Chaitin (@danielchaitin7) <a href="https://twitter.com/danielchaitin7/status/1306559137296285696?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 17, 2020</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Ron Johnson

Senate Committee Prepped To Subpoena Dozens Of Obama Admin Officials In Probe Of ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ Roots

Barack Obama

Crossfire Hurricane

U.S. Senate

Former Republican Sen. Jeff Flake of Arizona now claims Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is more conservative than President Donald Trump, a Republican, when it comes to “preserving institutions.”
Speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour, Flake explained why he is supporting Biden over Trump in November’s general elections.
&#8220;Conservatives believe in preserving institutions, to preserve what we know works and the institutions of American democracy — our freedom of the press, for example, or separation of powers, an independent judiciary,&#8221; Flake said. &#8220;The president has shown that he little understands or little appreciates these institutions.&#8221;
Flake went on to explain that Biden is the first Democrat the former Arizona senator will be voting for in a presidential election.
&#8220;I’m not pretending Joe Biden is as conservative as I am on fiscal issues and whatnot, but on those important issues of American democracy, frankly he’s more conservative than the president is,&#8221; Flake added.
It is odd for Flake to suggest Biden would preserve America’s institutions, considering what Biden accepted during the Obama administration when he was vice president.
The Obama administration spied on journalists and tried its best to ignore Fox News. In fact, as The San Diego Union-Tribune editorial board <a href="https://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/opinion/editorials/sd-obama-trump-media-leakers-20180910-story.html">wrote</a> in September 2018, Obama’s White House communications director Anita Dunn admitted to The New York Times that the administration would “treat [Fox] the way we would treat an opponent.” In 2013, former executive editor of The Washington Post Leonard Downie Jr. <a href="https://cpj.org/reports/2013/10/obama-and-the-press-us-leaks-surveillance-post-911.php">wrote</a> that the Obama “administration’s war on leaks and other efforts to control information are the most aggressive I’ve seen since the Nixon administration.”
In 2015, James Risen, who at the time was a reporter for the Times, <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/media/2015/02/risen-obama-administration-is-greatest-enemy-of-press-freedom-202707">said</a> the Obama administration was “the greatest enemy of press freedom in a generation.”
“Some specifics? Obama’s administration prosecuted three times as many cases targeting whistle-blowers and leakers than all previous administrations combined. It said there was probable cause that a Fox News reporter was a <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/local/justice-departments-scrutiny-of-fox-news-reporter-james-rosen-in-leak-case-draws-fire/2013/05/20/c6289eba-c162-11e2-8bd8-2788030e6b44_story.html?utm_term=.b26404e13c27">‘co-conspirator’</a> in a plot against the U.S. government because of his attempts to gather information about North Korea’s nuclear arsenal. It secretly scoured the phone records of nearly 100 Associated Press reporters and editors for two months, which an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/15/opinion/spying-on-the-associated-press.html">editorial</a> in The New York Times characterized as ‘a fishing expedition for sources and an effort to frighten off whistle-blowers.’ And in 2014, according to AP, the Obama administration <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/obama-administration-sets-new-record-withholding-foia-requests">broke its own record </a>for censoring government files or refusing to provide files sought under the Freedom of Information Act,” the Union-Tribune editorial board wrote.
Trump has merely criticized the press verbally, including calling them the “enemy of the people.”
Flake did not offer any examples for how Trump has undermined the separation of powers or an independent judiciary. The Obama administration stacked the courts with liberal justices, while the Trump administration is doing so with conservative justices. The Obama administration, however, undermined Americans’ core right to due process by demanding colleges and universities find more students responsible for sexual assault, leading schools to adopt policies that eviscerated due process. The Obama administration cheered these schools on and insisted anyone who disagreed was a rape apologist. Biden himself was the biggest cheerleader for these policies and stated he would overturn Trump administration requirements that schools provide basic due process.

Jeff Flake and Joe Biden

Jeff Flake Claims Biden ‘More Conservative’ Than Trump On Issues Like Freedom Of Press. Here’s What Biden Supported As VP.

2020 Election

Donald Trump

Jeff Flake

Carl and Marsha Mueller, whose daughter was killed by ISIS during the Obama administration, delivered a powerful message at the Republican National Convention on Thursday night comparing the response the family received from the two administrations.
&#8220;Our daughter Kayla was taken as a hostage and murdered by ISIS. From a young age, Kayla was amazing,&#8221; Marsha Mueller said. &#8220;She taught herself languages, how to write music, how to play guitar. She worked with troubled youth, military veterans, and Native Americans. Everywhere Kayla went, people smiled. Kayla had a gift to be able to see the world through someone else’s eyes. She became a humanitarian aid worker, and when she was helping children at an orphanage in India, Kayla wrote, ‘I find God in the suffering eyes reflected in mine. If this is how you are revealed to me, this is how I will forever seek you.’&#8221;
&#8220;She went to Turkey to help Syrian refugees in 2012. In August 2013, she was asked by another aid worker to cross the border into Syria to help at a hospital,” Marsha Mueller continued. “On August 4, 2013, ISIS terrorists stopped her vehicle and took her captive.&#8221;
&#8220;Kayla was mostly held in a 12 x 12 cell in solitary confinement. It was cold and dirty. ISIS terrorists shined bright lights in her face,&#8221; Carl Mueller said. &#8220;They shaved her head, they beat her, and tortured her. The leader of ISIS, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, raped her repeatedly. For 18 months, she endured, and we endured in agonizing back-and-forth between us, the Obama administration, and ISIS.&#8221;
&#8220;We put all our faith in the government, but the government let us down. President Obama refused to meet with us until ISIS had already beheaded other Americans,&#8221; Carl Mueller continued. &#8220;To this day, we never heard from Joe Biden. Instead, the Obama administration hid behind policy so much that we felt hopeless when they kept us from negotiating to save Kayla’s life. The administration showed more concern for the terrorists in Guantanamo than the American hostages in Syria.&#8221;
“The military prepared a rescue mission, but the White House delayed it,” Carl Mueller continued. “By the time it went forward, Kayla had been moved to another location. After 18 months of brutal torture, we learned from ISIS that Kayla had been killed. The Obama administration kept telling us they were doing everything they could, but their version of everything wasn’t enough.”
“What a difference a president makes,” Carl Mueller continued. “Under President Trump, U.S. Army special operators conducted a raid on al-Baghdadi’s compound. After we learned that al-Baghdadi was killed, we learned something else: the operators named themselves Task Force 814, after August 14, Kayla’s birthday. And the mission was named Operation Kayla Mueller. To those soldiers, thank you. Kayla was looking down on you.”
“The Trump team gave us empathy we never received from the Obama administration,” he said. “The Obama administration said it was doing everything it could; the Trump administration is. Let me just say this—Kayla should be here. If Donald Trump had been president when Kayla was captured, she would be here today.”
WATCH:
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&quot;God gave us Kayla, and she gave herself to the world.&quot;
In heartbreaking testimonial, parents of Kayla Mueller, humanitarian worker captured and killed by ISIS, honor their daughter, praise Pres. Trump, and call on Americans to &quot;stay strong like Kayla.&quot; <a href="https://t.co/EyJzJDolZ4">https://t.co/EyJzJDolZ4</a> <a href="https://t.co/WcxGfb4PrR">pic.twitter.com/WcxGfb4PrR</a>
&mdash; ABC News (@ABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ABC/status/1299165201921650688?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 28, 2020</a></blockquote>
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This story has been updated to include quotes from the speech.

Republicans Hold Virtual 2020 National Convention

Parents Whose Daughter Was Killed By ISIS Under Obama: Obama Cared More About Terrorists In GITMO Than American Hostages In Syria

Islamic State (ISIS)

Republican National Convention

Former First Lady Michelle Obama admonished the nation during her Monday address to the Democratic National Convention (DNC) about the importance of &#8220;going high&#8221; against their political opponents and stressed the need for &#8220;empathy.&#8221;
Referencing the famous catchphrase she rolled out during the DNC in 2016, Obama said, &#8220;Over the past four years, a lot of people have asked me, &#8216;When others are going so low, does going high still really work?&#8217; My answer: going high is the only thing that works, because when we go low, when we use those same tactics of degrading and dehumanizing others, we just become part of the ugly noise that’s drowning out everything else. We degrade ourselves. We degrade the very causes for which we fight.&#8221;
In examples such as those listed below, however, the Obamas and those around them have not always followed Michelle&#8217;s advice.
1. &#8216;You&#8217;re Likable Enough&#8217;: Bitter 2008 Democratic Primary
The 2008 Democratic primary between then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton was particularly <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/was-the-2008-democratic-primary-battle-as-bitter-as-this-one-election-2016/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">hard-fought</a> and contentious. Obama lobbed attacks at Clinton for supporting the Iraq War and allowing jobs to be shipped oversea, and Clinton, in turn, attacked Obama for having spent so many years in the church pews of the radically left-wing preacher Rev. Jeremiah Wright in Chicago.
During one memorable <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Kf4uXO-gDk" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">exchange</a>, Clinton complimented her opponent, saying, &#8220;He&#8217;s very likable, I agree with that. I don&#8217;t think I&#8217;m that bad.&#8221; To which Obama replied, &#8220;You&#8217;re likable enough.&#8221; Clinton responded awkwardly, &#8220;Thank you so much.&#8221;
Obama at one time also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=opNmTcTwFp0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">blurred</a> the distinction between Clinton and her husband after attacking her for something he said. &#8220;You talked about Ronald Reagan being a transformative political leader,&#8221; Hillary said during a debate. &#8220;I did not mention his name.&#8221; Obama replied, &#8220;Your husband did.&#8221; After Hillary said that her husband didn&#8217;t speak for her, Obama said, &#8220;Okay, well, I can&#8217;t tell who I&#8217;m running against sometimes.&#8221;
The two apparently <a href="https://www.npr.org/2016/06/09/480645291/bitter-rivals-to-allies-how-president-obama-evolved-on-hillary-clinton" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">made amends</a> in their relationship, with Clinton going on to become Obama&#8217;s secretary of state. The two also shared a seemingly <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eUlsTem7w0g" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">warm embrace</a> during the 2016 DNC, when Obama threw his endorsement behind her.
2. Obama Condescends To Small-Town Voters As Bitter Clingers To Guns And Religion
During the 2008 campaign, Obama <a href="https://www.politico.com/blogs/ben-smith/2008/04/obama-on-small-town-pa-clinging-to-religion-guns-xenophobia-007737" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">characterized</a> rural voters as embittered people whose economic disenfranchisement has led them to cling to religion and guns for comfort:
<blockquote>You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing&#8217;s replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it&#8217;s not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren&#8217;t like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.</blockquote>
The comment became a <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2008/apr/14/barackobama.uselections2008" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">key soundbite</a> of the 2008 campaign and maintained its relevance even into 2016, when former Republican Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin alluded to it in her <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/21/us/politics/sarah-palin-endorsement-speech-donald-trump.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">speech</a> endorsing Donald Trump. &#8220;How about the rest of us?&#8221; she said. &#8220;Right-winging, bitter-clinging, proud clingers of our guns, our God, and our religion, and our Constitution.&#8221;
3. DNC Implies Romney And Ryan Want To Kill Old People
During the 2012 campaign, DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Schultz <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2187843/Obama-AGAIN-paints-Ryan-granny-killer-medicare-proposals-new-attack-ad-warns-elderly-chose-medicine-meals-Romney-elected.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> that a vote for Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan would &#8220;force us back to the days&#8221; when seniors were &#8220;choosing between medicine and meals…choosing between healthcare and paying their rent.&#8221;
&#8220;If you go back to before Medicare was a safety net in place for our seniors, you had seniors who were not able to pay for their own health care needs, whose children went medically bankrupt trying to care for them,&#8221; Wasserman-Schultz added.
Wasserman-Schultz based her claim on Ryan&#8217;s budget reform plan, which would have increased Medicare eligibility to age 67 beginning in 2023 in an attempt to reduce the nation&#8217;s astronomical debt.
Political ads also circulated at the time of a man who looks like Ryan pushing an old lady in a wheelchair off a cliff.
4. Biden Says Romney Will Put Black People &#8216;Back In Chains&#8217;
Also during the 2012 campaign, Biden warned a largely black audience that a Romney administration would &#8220;unchain Wall Street&#8221; and &#8220;put ya&#8217;ll back in chains.&#8221;
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Joe Biden is a serial race-baiter who spent decades fanning the flames of hatred and trafficking in fear and division.
8 years ago today, he told Black Americans that Republicans wanted to “put y’all back in chains!” <a href="https://t.co/9HZ5cgOucM">pic.twitter.com/9HZ5cgOucM</a>
&mdash; Trump War Room &#8211; Text TRUMP to 88022 (@TrumpWarRoom) <a href="https://twitter.com/TrumpWarRoom/status/1294365338155581440?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">August 14, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Biden, who has a penchant for making racially insensitive remarks, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/bidens-tense-you-aint-black-interview-goes-viral-sparks-backlash" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">sparked backlash</a> in May when he told popular black commentator and radio host Charlamagne tha God that &#8220;if you have a problem figuring out whether you’re for me or Trump, then you ain’t black.&#8221;
5. &#8216;The 80s Called&#8217;: Obama Accuses Romney Of Implementing Cold War-Era Foreign Policy
Obama hit at Romney during a 2012 debate for placing so much emphasis on the <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2017/07/31/opinions/obama-romney-russia-opinion-drucker/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">geopolitical threat</a> from Russia. Romney, who at one point had said Russia is &#8220;without question, our No. 1 geopolitical foe,&#8221; presaged the Democratic Party&#8217;s obsession with the country.
&#8220;Governor Romney, I&#8217;m glad you recognize al-Qaida is a threat, because a few months ago when you were asked what is the biggest geopolitical group facing America, you said Russia, not al-Qaida,&#8221; said Obama. &#8220;You said Russia. And the 1980s are now calling to ask for their foreign policy back. Because the Cold War has been over for 20 years. But Governor, when it comes to our foreign policy, you seem to want to import the foreign policies of the 1980s, just like the social policy of the 1950s, and the economic policies of the 1920s.&#8221;
Lanhee Chen, Romney&#8217;s top policy adviser from the 2012 campaign, told CNN:
<blockquote>Gov. Romney was very careful with his words. He chose the term &#8220;geopolitical foe&#8221; deliberately, because he wanted to differentiate the challenge posed by Russia from other significant national security threats, like radical Islamic terror or North Korea&#8217;s nuclear weapons program. The phrase &#8220;geopolitical foe&#8221; was meant to evoke a game of Chess, where an opponent is trying to counteract or block every move you make. That&#8217;s what he was trying to convey by characterizing our relationship with Russia in that way.</blockquote>
After Trump&#8217;s electoral victory, the Democratic Party would pinpoint Russia as the primary source of much of the nation&#8217;s turmoil and use its alleged interference in the election as a pretext for impeaching him.
6. Eric Holder: &#8216;When They Go Low, We Kick Them&#8217;
Perhaps most strikingly, Obama&#8217;s attorney general Eric Holder flatly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/democrat-eric-holder-when-republicans-go-low-we-ryan-saavedra" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">contradicted</a> Michelle&#8217;s dictum when he offered the inverse as his political philosophy. Speaking to a group in the lead-up to the 2018 mid-term election, Holder said, &#8220;Michelle always says, Michelle Obama, I love her. She and my wife are really tight. Which always scares me and Barack. Michelle always says, &#8216;When they go low, we go high.&#8217; No. No. When they go low, we kick them.&#8221;
&#8220;That is what this new Democratic Party is about,&#8221; Holder told the cheering audience. He later added, &#8220;When I say we kick them, I don&#8217;t mean we do anything inappropriate, we don&#8217;t do anything illegal, but we have to be tough and we have to fight.&#8221;
Holder&#8217;s rhetoric echoed the sentiment of Obama&#8217;s Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who around the same time <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/09/politics/hillary-clinton-civility-congress-cnntv/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a>, &#8220;You cannot be civil with a political party that wants to destroy what you stand for, what you care about. That&#8217;s why I believe, if we are fortunate enough to win back the House and or the Senate, that&#8217;s when civility can start again. But until then, the only thing that the Republicans seem to recognize and respect is strength.&#8221;
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Maxine Waters: “Tell them they’re not welcome anymore, anywhere!” Cory Booker: “Get up in the face of some congresspeople!” Hillary Clinton: “You cannot be civil with” Republicans. Eric Holder: “Kick &#39;em!”
The left has become an unhinged mob.<a href="https://t.co/MScAaXe2JR">pic.twitter.com/MScAaXe2JR</a>
&mdash; Ronna McDaniel (@GOPChairwoman) <a href="https://twitter.com/GOPChairwoman/status/1051217763941982208?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">October 13, 2018</a></blockquote>
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7. Michelle Obama Blames Her &#8216;Low-Grade Depression&#8217; On Trump
Earlier this month, Michelle Obama <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/michelle-obama-blames-her-low-grade-depression-partly-on-hypocrisy-of-trump-administration" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">revealed</a> that she has been suffering from &#8220;low-grade depression&#8221; in recent months and blamed her affliction partly on the Trump administration for its response to the nation&#8217;s racial tensions.
&#8220;There have been periods throughout this quarantine where I just have felt too low,&#8221; Obama said during an interview with Washington Post columnist Michele Norris. &#8220;You know, I’ve gone through those emotional highs and lows that I think everybody feels, where you just don’t feel yourself.&#8221;
Describing her sleep disturbances, Obama continued, &#8220;I know that I am dealing with some form of low-grade depression. Not just because of the quarantine, but because of the racial strife, and just seeing this administration, watching the hypocrisy of it, day in and day out, is dispiriting.&#8221;
&#8220;I have to say that waking up to the news, waking up to how this administration has or has not responded, waking up to yet another story of a black man or a black person somehow being dehumanized or hurt or killed, or falsely accused of something, it is exhausting,” she said. “It has led to a weight that I haven’t felt in my life — in, in a while.&#8221;
8. Obama Politicizes Funeral Of Rep. John Lewis
Last month, Barack Obama <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-obama-takes-trump-shots-during-hyper-political-eulogy-for-john-lewis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">used</a> the funeral of late Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) as a platform to accuse Trump of suppressing the minority vote. He also alleged during his eulogy of the Civil Rights icon that the Senate filibuster is racist and likened federal law enforcement quelling riots to the police who enforced segregation.
&#8220;George Wallace may be gone,&#8221; Obama said after invoking the image of George Floyd&#8217;s death in Minneapolis police custody. &#8220;But we can witness our federal government sending agents to use tear gas and batons against peaceful demonstrators.&#8221;
&#8220;We may no longer have to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar in order to cast a ballot,&#8221; Obama continued. &#8220;But even as we sit here, there are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting by closing polling locations, and targeting minorities and students with restrictive ID laws, and attacking our voting rights with surgical precision – even undermining the postal service in the run-up to an election that’s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick.&#8221;
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Former Pres. Obama:
&quot;There are those in power who are doing their darndest to discourage people from voting &#8230; attacking our voting rights &#8230; even undermining the postal service in run-up to an election that&#39;s going to be dependent on mail-in ballots so people don’t get sick!” <a href="https://t.co/onKmkIXWau">pic.twitter.com/onKmkIXWau</a>
&mdash; NBC News (@NBCNews) <a href="https://twitter.com/NBCNews/status/1288900994047369217?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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Urging his audience to &#8220;keep marching,&#8221; Obama also took aim at the filibuster, which he claimed is &#8220;another Jim Crow relic&#8221; that impinges on American rights.
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&quot;If all this takes eliminating the filibuster, another Jim Crow relic, in order to secure the god given rights of every American, then that&#39;s what we should do.&quot;<a href="https://twitter.com/BarackObama?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@barackobama</a> calls for automatic voter registration, statehood for D.C., Puerto Rico. <a href="https://t.co/0rTsRrwYWS">pic.twitter.com/0rTsRrwYWS</a>
&mdash; The ReidOut (@thereidout) <a href="https://twitter.com/thereidout/status/1288905632033251330?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 30, 2020</a></blockquote>
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In a July 30 <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQu4ZHXItr0" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">monologue</a>, Fox News host Tucker Carlson offered Obama&#8217;s politicized eulogy as an example of how the Left worships power:
<blockquote>Imagine if some greasy politician showed up at your loved one&#8217;s funeral and started throwing around stupid partisan talking points about Senate procedure. Can you imagine that? You would be shocked if that happened. You&#8217;d probably walk out. Desecrating a funeral with campaign slogans? What kind of person would do that?
But Democrats in the audience didn&#8217;t seem offended. They didn&#8217;t blink. They cheered. It all seemed normal to them. And why wouldn&#8217;t it? Political power is their religion. It&#8217;s not out of place in a church. It&#8217;s what they worship. People who will politicize a funeral will do anything, and they&#8217;re trying to. Democrats are working systematically to dismantle the core institutions of American life, beginning with the family and with faith.</blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/breaking-obama-takes-trump-shots-during-hyper-political-eulogy-for-john-lewis" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Obama Takes Trump Shots During Hyper-Political Eulogy For John Lewis</a>

Obama John Lewis funeral

8 Times The Obama Administration Didn’t Exactly ‘Go High’ Against Their Political Opposition

Michelle Obama

On Wednesday, President Donald Trump said via Twitter that Americans living the &#8220;Suburban Lifestyle Dream&#8221; will no longer be &#8220;bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing&#8221; built in their neighborhoods, referencing the recent repeal of the Obama era &#8220;Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing,&#8221; or AFFH.
The rule was enacted in 2015 and was gutted by the Trump administration soon after he took office. On Thursday, the president officially repealed what was left of the AFFH.
&#8220;I am happy to inform all of the people living their Suburban Lifestyle Dream that you will no longer be bothered or financially hurt by having low income housing built in your neighborhood,&#8221; POTUS posted to Twitter on Wednesday morning.
&#8220;Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down,&#8221; Trump promised in a follow-up post. &#8220;I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!&#8221;
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&#8230;Your housing prices will go up based on the market, and crime will go down. I have rescinded the Obama-Biden AFFH Rule. Enjoy!
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1288509572223651840?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">July 29, 2020</a></blockquote>
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The Obama era rule was written under the Fair Housing Act and &#8220;required local governments to prove that federal subsidies for housing projects would not go to developments with zoning laws or other regulations that are effectively discriminatory to minorities, particularly Black and Hispanic Americans,&#8221; The Hill <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/finance/509595-trump-claims-decision-to-repeal-fair-housing-rule-will-boost-home-prices-lower">reported</a>, noting: &#8220;HUD claimed that the original rule effectively stripped local control over regulations and drowned localities with onerous and unnecessary paperwork.&#8221;
In a recent op-ed touted by President Trump, New York Post columnist Betsy McCaughey <a href="https://nypost.com/2020/07/21/joe-bidens-disastrous-plans-for-americas-suburbs/">described</a> the AFFH in disastrous terms, tying it to presumptive Democratic candidate and former Obama VP Joe Biden.
&#8220;The ex-veep wants to ramp up an Obama-era social engineering scheme called Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing (AFFH) that mercifully barely got underway before President Trump took office, vowing to stop it,&#8221; McCaughey outlines. &#8220;Biden’s plan is to force suburban towns with single-family homes and minimum lot sizes to build high-density affordable housing smack in the middle of their leafy neighborhoods — local preferences and local control be damned.&#8221;
The Obama rule was initially &#8220;floated a cookie-cutter requirement for &#8216;balanced housing&#8217; in every suburb,&#8221; says McCaughey. &#8220;&#8216;Balanced&#8217; meant affordable even for people who need federal vouchers. Towns were obligated to &#8216;do more than simply not discriminate,&#8217; as a 2013 HUD proposal explained. Rather, towns had to make it possible for <a href="https://nypost.com/2016/05/08/obamas-last-act-is-to-force-suburbs-to-be-less-white-and-less-wealthy/">low-income minorities</a> to choose suburban living and provide &#8216;adequate support to make their choices possible.'&#8221;
&#8220;Had the rule been implemented nationwide,&#8221; the columnist argues, &#8220;towns everywhere would have had to scrap zoning, build bigger water and sewer lines to support high-density living, expand schools and social services and add mass transit. All pushing up local taxes. Towns that refused would lose their federal aid.&#8221;
McCaughey notes that black Americans, according to Brookings Institution data, &#8220;have been steadily leaving inner cities and choosing suburban lifestyles.&#8221;
&#8220;Many families — of all races — want the peace of mind of letting their kids ride bikes around quiet neighborhood streets. That’s what zoning laws provide,&#8221; she says.
And that&#8217;s what the Obama AFFH would destroy: &#8220;Biden and the equality warriors are using accusations of racism to accomplish something different. Their message is: You worked and saved to move to the suburbs, but you can’t have that way of life unless everyone else can, too.&#8221;

President Trump Returns To The White House After Travel To Maryland

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Hillary Clinton famously tried to move past the Obama administration’s mistakes in Benghazi by claiming, “What difference, at this point, does it make?”
Now another former Obama official wants to pretend nothing happened just because a few years have passed. Former Obama senior adviser Valerie Jarrett suggested Tuesday we all move on from how the previous administration used the FBI to spy on its opponent, then-candidate Donald Trump, in 2016.
Appearing on Fox Business with host Maria Bartiromo, Jarrett tried to absolve the FBI investigators who looked into whether the Trump campaign colluded with Russia to steal the 2016 election – an investigation that resulted in a two-year special counsel investigation that found no collusion.
&#8220;Well, Maria, look, I have a high degree of confidence that our of intelligence community, our investigators comported themselves responsibly,” Jarrett said. “Look, Lindsey Graham is the one that encouraged Senator McCain to turn over the dossier in the first place to the FBI.”
McCain was involved in jumpstarting the allegations that the Trump campaign was colluding with Russia, but Jarrett ignores the major role the Obama FBI played in inappropriately surveilling campaign adviser Carter Page. As The Daily Wire previously <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/ig-report-here-are-the-17-specific-inaccuracies-and-omissions-in-the-fbis-fisa-warrants-against-carter-page">reported</a>, the Department of Justice’s Office of the Inspector General (OIG) found 17 “inaccuracies and omissions” in FISA warrant applications to spy on Page. The FBI blatantly ignored information from a U.S. government agency that said it had a prior relationship with Page involving contacts with Russian intelligence officers. An FBI agent went so far as to alter an email to make it look like this agency said Page did not work with them.
The FBI hid this information from the FISA court in order to obtain another warrant to continue investigating Page, even though it knew there was nothing to investigate. By spying on Page, the FBI gained access to other Trump associates to spy on in order to find some evidence that could be used against Trump.
Jarrett then pushed the blame for the dubious investigation onto former FBI Director James Comey, who was a major player in the whole situation, but she again pushes the blame from the Obama administration.
“So, I can’t tell you all of the reasons why Comey went forward with his investigation. Maybe this was one piece of a bigger puzzle. But I do know that it’s nearly four years ago and I don’t understand why our focus isn’t on what’s happening right now and today. That’s the investigation I would like to see going on,&#8221; Jarrett said.
Jarrett is essentially demanding we move on from the biggest scandal in political history since Watergate because it happened four years ago. She neglects that two years were spent investigating Trump, while DOJ-appointed investigators are continuing to work on how that dubious investigation began. Newly declassified documents continue to paint a picture of an FBI that knew there was no evidence of collusion, but continued to investigate and leak information to the press to create a narrative that Trump stole the election. The real scandal is the investigation itself, which started at the behest of the Obama administration.

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