Rep. Darrell Issa said Monday that he isn’t surprised President Obama deflected blame for the administration’s apparent missteps by attacking him after he spent years aggressively investigating “serious scandals” like the Benghazi tragedy.
“I’m disappointed but not surprised that the president, in a political speech, continues to deny accountability for the serious scandals that happened under his watch where Americans died overseas and veterans have died here at home,” the former House Oversight and Government Reform Committee chairman said in a statement after Obama accused him of exhibiting “shameless” behavior.
“You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks I’ve done too much to hold Washington accountable. I’ve worked with the administration on good legislation where it was possible, called out wrongdoing wherever I saw it and will continue to do so,” the California Republican said.
Issa once described Obama as “one of the most corrupt presidents in modern times” and investigated the administration’s handling of the Benghazi attacks, the Internal Revenue Service, and the “fast and furious” program that saw the government sell guns to Mexican cartels for the purposes of dismantling their operations.
Issa, who faces a tough re-election battle, sent a campaign mailer out last week saying he is “very pleased” that Obama signed legislation he co-sponsored. On Sunday, Obama described the apparent change in tone as evidence of Issa’s “chutzpah” at an event attended by the Republican’s opponent, Democrat Doug Applegate.
“As far as I can tell … Issa’s primary contribution to the United States Congress has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped-up investigations that have led nowhere, and this is now a guy who because poll numbers are bad has sent out brochures with my picture on them touting his cooperation on issues with me. That is the definition of chutzpah,” said Obama, who further claimed, “we have not had a major scandal in my administration.”
“This guy has spent all his time simply trying to obstruct, to feed the same sentiments that resulted in Donald Trump becoming their nominee,” Obama said. “I think somebody called Darrell Issa — was this you, Doug? — that Darrell Issa was Trump before Trump, and now is sending out brochures touting his cooperation with me. That is shameless.” Obama said this is not somebody who is “serious” about tackling the problems in the country, before balancing his critical remarks by saying Issa has been “very pleasant to me at our Christmas parties.”
