A Congressman Just Tried To Blame Obama For State Dept. Mar-A-Lago Ads
If there’s one thing you can definitely say about Trump’s first 100 days, it’s that Republicans have stepped their shameful antics up a notch. Or three.
If they aren’t blatantly ignoring Trump’s corruption or links to Russia, they’re blaming President Obama for everything bad under the sun. Or, in this case, accusing him of something only a kleptocrat like President Donald Trump would do.
Last night CNN, like many other news stations, were discussing Trump’s first 100 days. The conversation quickly turned to the recent scandal which involved the State Department promoting Trump’s private Mar-A-Lago resort, in clear violation of White House ethics rules.
Naturally, Republicans were quick to come to our corrupt President’s defense.
CNN commentator Van Jones began by stating the obvious:
It’s outrageous. It’s completely outrageous. Part of the thing that is shocking to me is, with a few exceptions, you don’t hear conservatives shouting about this. One of the things you want to be able to rely on the conservatives for is limited government, clean government, small government. It’s outright kleptocracy from what I can see.
This is — you literally have somebody who says, my house, my business is the winter White House,” he continued. “This is an ad. — you would pay a billion dollars for this ad.
In response, Congressman Jack Kingston (R-GA) did what Republicans do best: blame “big government” and bureaucracy.
I’m extremely happy the White House reacted immediately and the thing came down. But I also want to point out, this is part of a $72 million click-bait campaign the State Department previously engaged in. It was not done under the Trump administration and it’s part of what they’re trying to ferret out: the waste in government and silly programs.
CNN commentator Ana Navarro took exception tot his statement and pressed Kingston on the fact that Trump has held many high-level and well-publicized meetings with foreign leaders at the resort. Kingston then took the outrageous step of trying to blame Obama, all the while sporting the manic grin of a man who knows he’s lying through his teeth.
You’ve forced me into reminding you that this is something that’s left over from the Obama administration. I tried not to say that. It’s a $72 million clickbait campaign!
Kingston looked ridiculous. He knew it, the other commentators knew it, and now the world knows it. His reference to this fabled clickbait campaign is clearly a line he has prepared backstage in order to deflect criticism from Trump and thankfully CNN, and no doubt its viewers, just didn’t buy it.
While Kingston’s comments are cringey and embarrassing, they represent a deeper malaise in American politics, namely that Trump’s disastrous Presidency is greatly facilitated by non-existent Republican criticism of his policies or downright collusion with them.
Watch the full video here:
