Jason Chaffetz: Biden falsely claims no hint of scandal when he was VP
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}The bewildering claim by Democratic presidential hopeful and former Vice President Joe Biden this week that that "there wasn't a single, solitary hint of scandal" during the Obama-Biden administration may help explain why President Trump refers to Biden as Sleepy Joe.
Biden must have slept through the eight years of scandals that resulted in American deaths at home and abroad, the weaponization of our executive branch agencies, and the compromise of our classified information when he served as vice president under President Barack Obama.
Try telling the family of slain Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry that the Obama-Biden administration was scandal-free. Terry was killed by a gun our government deliberately sold to drug cartels in Mexico. Not only did the Obama-Biden Justice Department know about that operation – Attorney General Eric Holder participated in covering it up when the scandal broke.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}CAL THOMAS: JOE BIDEN PROMISES TO TAKE US BACK TO THE OBAMA YEARS -- WHY WOULD WE WANT TO DO THAT?
Try telling the families of four people murdered by terrorists in Benghazi, Libya and the brave men who fought to save them that there were no scandals. The congressional investigation into the incident very clearly revealed that State Department officials made a deliberate decision to withhold required security from the U.S. diplomatic facility in Benghazi.
In Benghazi, officials sent Defense Department security teams home. They waived security requirements, even as the ambassador begged them to reconsider. In a congressional hearing, they openly admitted that the decision had nothing to do with the budget.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Unlike Trump-era scandals, Obama-Biden era scandals actually got people killed.
It was a political decision. One that was driven by a desire to downplay the devastating result of what President Obama would later call the worst mistake of his presidency.
Responding to a question from Chris Wallace of Fox News in 2016 about his worst mistake, Obama said: “Probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya.”
When the attack on Benghazi came, our people were left to fend for themselves. Would-be rescuers were left to argue with administration officials about what to wear, because the Obama-Biden administration didn't want them to look like military personnel.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Meanwhile, our people died. The rescue operation never happened. No U.S. personnel were ever directed to go to Benghazi to save our people.
Unlike Trump-era scandals, Obama-Biden era scandals actually got people killed.
Beyond that, the Obama-Biden administration deliberately weaponized government agencies to abuse their power for political purposes. At the time, we had no idea just how extensive that effort was.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}We were unaware of the use of federal law enforcement resources to spy on opposing political campaigns. But we know without a doubt that the Internal Revenue Service was used to target conservative nonprofits.
We know without question that the Obama-Biden Justice Department seized phone records for about 20 Associated Press reporters and secretly monitored the communications of then-Fox News correspondent James Rosen.
To this day, Democrats and their media allies try to erase those realities. With regard to IRS targeting, President Obama himself made a claim that is surely being echoed by Biden today when Obama told a massive post-Super Bowl television audience in 2014 that there was "not even a smidgeon of corruption" in the IRS targeting of conservatives.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}But in truth, the Justice Department later settled lawsuits from many of those nonprofits, admitting guilt and paying them millions of taxpayer dollars in the legal settlement. That is fact, not narrative.
In the weaponization of the Obama-Biden Justice Department against reporters, the department actually used search warrants and the threat of prosecution under the Espionage Act to pressure journalists. This was excused by President Obama as a national security effort for which he would "make no apologies."
That's more than “a smidgeon of corruption.” It's more than a “single, solitary hint of scandal.”
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Add to that the fact that President Obama himself was sending emails to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton using her private email address. And that his Justice Department soft-pedaled the investigation into Clinton’s careless exposure of our nation's most sensitive secrets.
Add that the FBI protected Clinton, failing to take custody of laptops and devices, failing to record interviews with her, allowing material witnesses to act as counsel in those interviews, and gaslighting America to believe Clinton could not be prosecuted unless they could prove her intent.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}These are just the scandals you may have read about. There were dozens more.
Biden, like President Obama before him, shows little faith in the intelligence of the American voter if he believes he can pass off the Obama-Biden administration as having a scandal-free legacy.