“As congressional Republicans prepare to release a House Intelligence Committee report that paints former President Barack Obama as a “vengeful narcissist” who sought to punish his political enemies with the efficiency of a Russian KGB operative, a 2013 statement from Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) has resurfaced that supports the image of Obama as a heavy-handed tyrant.
Waters’ odious remarks came during a 2013 interview with journalist Roland Martin as the pair were discussing the future of the Democratic Party post-Obama. The California liberal lauded Obama’s efforts at establishing a “database [that] will have information about everything on every individual.”
Just five months after the Martin interview, Obama was exposed by NSA leaker Eric Snowden for operating a massive government surveillance program which targeted just about every American to ever use a cellular or communicate from the internet. The Washington Post described the program as a massive expansion of President George W. Bush’s warrantless wiretapping program.
Yet, Americans were ignorant of this program at the time of Waters’ interview, explaining why the implications of her remarks were never addressed by the mainstream media. The discussion turned to the database seemingly without provocation. Speaking about Obama’s last term in office, Martin said that Democratic lawmakers “better get what you can while he’s there because, look come 2016, that’s it.”
Watch the exchange below:
The ramifications of Waters’ comments were compounded by events on Capitol Hill this week. The House Intelligence Committee released a memo to the rest of their colleagues in Congress which alleged that Obama may have turned U.S. Intelligence agencies into his own partisan political enforcers.
Although lawmakers are currently forbidden from discussing the contents of the memo, sources close to the House-led investigation say that the report reviews Obama’s use of FISA surveillance against his political enemies. After viewing the memo in a classified setting, Rep. Scott Perry (R-Pa.) said, “You think about, ‘is this happening in America or is this the KGB?’ That’s how alarming it is.” (Read more: Conservative Institute, 1/30/2018)