14 Real Obama Scandals That Have Nothing to do with His Wearing a Tan Suit
By Matt Margolis
Five years ago last week, Barack Obama attended a press briefing in a tan suit, and the media wouldn’t shut up about it. Since then, the tan suit incident evolved into a myth that conservatives had freaked out about the suit. So, of course, the media has chosen to turn the tan suit into the symbol of Obama’s “scandal-free” presidency.
Chris Hayes of MSNBC marked the occasion with a segment called “Remembering Obama’s biggest scandal: the tan suit.” CNN, (which once reported on Trump getting two scoops of ice cream while everyone else gets one) remembered the incident as causing “a divisive disturbance in America’s normal sartorial acceptance of the President’s choices” or something. The Washington Post also reflected on the “huge controversy” it caused and called the tan suit a symbol of “the relative dearth of scandals during the Obama administration.”
Once again, it seems necessary to remind the public that the Obama administration was not scandal-free. In fact, Obama was so dogged by scandals there’s a whole book detailing them. But, to prove my point, here’s are just a few of them that have nothing to do with Obama wearing a tan suit:
14. The Senate seat for sale scandal
Before Obama even took office he was implicated in a scandal involving his soon-to-be-vacant Senate seat. Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich had hoped to get a cabinet position or ambassadorship in exchange for appointing an Obama-backed individual to replace him in the Senate. Obama’s top choice had been Valerie Jarrett, and he offered to appoint Jarrett “in exchange for the position of Secretary of Health and Human Services in the President-elect’s cabinet,” but she eventually opted to follow Obama to the White House as his top advisor.
To sweep it under the rug, the Obama transition conducted an internal investigation to determine whether the president-elect had done anything illegal. Naturally, they claimed everything was above board. Their investigation allegedly “affirmed the public statements of the president-elect that he had no contact with the governor or his staff, and that the president-elect’s staff was not involved in inappropriate discussions with the governor or his staff over the selection of his successor as U.S. senator.” But, this claim contradicts both the criminal complaint against Blagojevich and numerous documents obtained by Judicial Watch through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request.
13. The New Black Panther Party Voter-Intimidation Scandal
In May 2009, the government was on the verge of victory by default in 2008 voter intimidation case against the New Black Panther Party (NBPP), Attorney General Eric Holder inexplicably dropped the case in May 2009. When the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights investigated, the Obama-Biden administration refused to respond to requests from the commission and Congress and fought subpoenas. Federal attorneys were instructed not to cooperate with the investigation and then-Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Tom Perez (the current chairman of the Democratic National Committee) lied under oath about who was involved in the decision to drop the case. If this wasn’t a scandal, why did the Obama-Biden administration obstruct the investigation?
12. Obama’s Illegal Firing of an Inspector General
Also in 2009, Barack Obama illegally fired Gerald Walpin, the Inspector General for the Corporation for National and Community Service. Walpin’s only crime was that he was investigating Obama’s friend and donor, Kevin Johnson. Johnson had misused federal grant money for AmeriCorps by funneling it to his personal nonprofit group, paying for political activity, and using it to pay hush money to underage girls he’d sexually abused. Walpin recommended charges against Johnson, Obama, in violation of federal law, fired him. An investigation by Congress into the illegal firing was met with stonewalling by the Obama White House, and the withholding of documents. The Obama White House also deliberately misled Congress about the reasons for the firing.
11. The Secret Service Prostitution scandal
In 2012, members of the Secret Service were caught up in a prostitution scandal during Obama’s visit to Columbia. A member of the White House advance team was reportedly also caught up in the scandal. In an attempt to cover up the scandal, the White House launched with a bogus internal investigation that predictably found that no White House staffers were involved in the scandal. As the saying goes, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover-up that gets you in trouble, well, when evidence emerged that a White House staff member may have been involved, the White House tried to cover that up, too.
10. The Green Energy loans scandal
Does Joe Biden really think that when more than fifty clean energy companies backed by the Obama-Biden administration went bankrupt or found themselves in major financial trouble that isn’t a scandal? Tell that to the taxpayers who footed the $80 billion for their “green economy” initiatives that went to companies that supported their campaign. The most well-known example of one of these companies that went belly-up was Solyndra. Solyndra received more than a half-billion-dollar loan despite the fact the Department of Energy (DOE) knew they were on the verge of bankruptcy.
Obama can’t claim ignorance on this one because he and Joe Biden were both personally involved in the decision-making process to determine who got loans. Also, only companies that donated to their campaign (or other Democrats) got these green energy loans. Worse yet, proprietary technology from companies that didn’t get the loans were given to the Obama-Biden donors that did.
If this wasn’t a scandal, why did the Obama administration stonewall Congress investigation of the matter? When House Republicans subpoenaed documents for their investigation, the Obama White House fired back claiming their request would put an “unreasonable burden on the president’s ability to meet his constitutional duties.” Sure.
9. The Fast & Furious scandal
The Obama administration sent two thousand firearms across the border in order to trace them to drug cartels, and lost hundreds of them. That’s pretty darn bad. But it got a whole lot worse when a border agent was killed with one of those guns. In response to this revelation, the Obama administration stonewalled and obstructed the investigation into what happened. Attorney General Eric Holder falsely claimed to have no knowledge of the operation, and Obama personally obstructed the investigation by claiming executive privilege over documents requested by Congress. Not a scandal? Really? Attorney General Eric Holder was held in contempt of Congress in a bipartisan vote, for obstructing the investigation. What more do you need to admit this was a scandal?
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