Following the release of the intelligence report detailing Russia’s meddling in the U.S. election late last week, the Sunday morning shows were all abuzz with commentary with most of it critical of President-elect Donald Trump. But things were slightly different on CBS’ Face the Nation where radio host Tammy Bruce ripped in President Barack Obama for his meddling in the democratic election in Israel, all in a futile attempt to oust Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
“In 2015, we spent over 350,000 taxpayer dollars funding an organization in Israel called OneVoice, which we learned once we gave them those grants they immediately began to build up an infrastructure to oppose Netanyahu in Israel,” recalled Bruce.
Bruce’s claim is accurate, and not only did Obama use taxpayer money to undermine a staunch US ally but the news broke around the same time as the Russian meddling was occurring. “This is not unknown, it was widely reported in the summer of last year that it was an Obama-aligned group of people that worked with his campaign that were the consultants to that effort to dislodge Netanyahu, an active campaign in Israel,” she continued.
According to The Washington Times a Senate investigation found, “OneVoice used the money to build a voter database, train activists and hire a political consulting firm with ties to President Obama’s campaign.” And if that wasn’t bad enough, the US’ top official in the country was discovered to have “…regularly deleted emails with large attachments — a striking violation of open-records laws…”
But that wasn’t the only harsh reality Bruce dropped on the Face the Nation panel:
James clapper lied about the spying on every single American to Congress. Was asked specifically about whether or not there was a program where Americans were being spied on and he said “No.” Still years later they’re saying well he said it was the least untruthful thing he could tell Congress.
In May of 2016, The Hill reported that according to Clapper’s lawyer, America’s head intelligence official had “forgotten” the NSA program that spies on millions of innocent citizens. “Still, critics such as Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) have called for Clapper to resign over the flap, which they say amounts to perjury,” The Hill added.
Neither of the facts that Bruce shared on CBS were seriously discussed on any of the other Big Three network morning shows. One ABC, George Stephanopoulos aired a cushy interview with Obama in the White House. There was some fire on NBC, but it was CNBC’s Rick Santelli calling out Chuck Todd for picking sides in the election.
Transcript below:
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CBS
Face the Nation
January 8, 2017
11:11:02 AM EasternJOHN DICKERSON: Tammy I want to start with you on this question of Russia. Donald Trump according to what Mr. Reince Priebus said today, seems to of had a bit of an evolution from his previous skepticism. Priebus now says he believes what everyone else does, that the Russians hacked into this election.
TAMMY BRUCE: Well, I think they hacked into the DNC, they didn't hack into the election. And I think that what we also know, of course, is that-- And this is what’s interesting, is that you’ve got James Clapper who is advising, of course, Donald Trump who just in 2013 when we talk about how seriously we can take this and why the American people want to know more about what happened and why president-elect wants to know more.
James clapper lied about the spying on every single American to Congress. Was asked specifically about whether or not there was a program where Americans were being spied on and he said “No.” Still years later they’re saying well he said it was the least untruthful thing he could tell Congress. So the American people for the last several years have looked at a system that hasn't take them seriously and has lied to them. First coupled with, of course, the Iraq situation. But ultimately right now, I think, Americans want America to be first, of course, we want a cabinet that is going to take Russia seriously, and he’s put together one that will.
And also it seems like there is an interest in either having a new Cold War or that there is an effort to gin up the problems; when in fact Hillary Clinton-- one of the first things Hillary and Obama did was embrace the Russians and wanted a reset. So this is not unusual, but what I think there is a difference between the narrative that the election was hacked versus-- And I will remind you the first thing that was released when the Podesta e-mails were hacked was an Oppo dump on Trump. It was the Democrats opposition research on Donald Trump, so the entire notion that this was about to help Donald Trump, I think, is belied by that especially.
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11:15:35 AM Eastern
BRUCE: If I could add something that was happening simultaneously as this. In 2015, we spent over 350,000 taxpayer dollars funding an organization in Israel called OneVoice, which we learned once we gave them those grants they immediately began to build up an infrastructure to oppose Netanyahu in Israel. This is not unknown, it was widely reported in the summer of last year that it was an Obama aligned group of people that worked with his campaign that were the consultants to that effort to dislodge Netanyahu, an active campaign in Israel.
This was happening in 15, reported in the summer of 16, so it involved the same things we are accusing the Russians of, trolling on the internet, but on the ground boots, developing a database, actively working against Netanyahu. This government, The Washington Post noted that this was gross interference, with the only democracy in the Middle East. I would assert that Obama was limited in what he could say about Russia because he was doing exactly the same thing to Israel.
And also when it comes to the issue about not wanting to touch the Russians, we were in the middle of the Syrian negotiations while this was occurring as well and the desire not to interrupt that. Just like his red line disappeared for Syria, because he didn't want to upset the nuke deal in Iran.
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