A senior Obama aide came under fire from both sides of the political aisle on Thursday, following a cruel “joke” on social media where he sarcastically hoped for the deaths of President Trump, Vice President Pence, Mitch McConnell, and Paul Ryan.
Obama’s advisor Ben Rhodes posted the insensitive remark shortly after the Republican leadership posed for a photograph in the Oval Office following the passage of the GOP-sponsored tax cuts.
Dan Pfeiffer, another top Obama aide commented on the photo, writing “I hope this is the photo they use on the front page of the Times on the day Trump is indicted.”
I hope this is the photo they use on the front page of the Times on the day Trump is indicted pic.twitter.com/mifuyBk6YY
— Dan Pfeiffer (@danpfeiffer) December 21, 2017
Rhodes commented back, posting “And alongside the obits for Ryan, McConnell, and Pence.”
And alongside the obits for Ryan, McConnell, and Pence https://t.co/fOrm1JZwpu
— Ben Rhodes (@brhodes) December 21, 2017
Users on twitter were quick to call-out the disgusting comments, with one person saying, “Hoping people die? Tolerant progressive liberal I see.”
GOP Rep. Steve Scalise –critically injured during an assassination attempt at a Republican baseball game- weighed-in on the incendiary language, saying Rhodes “may want to reconsider” his choice of words.
You may want to reconsider your rhetoric. https://t.co/VQVWej6n00
— Steve Scalise (@SteveScalise) December 21, 2017
BOMBSHELL: Obama Admin Spied on Trump Campaign Chairman During Election
Former chairman of the Trump campaign Paul Manafort was wiretapped by federal investigators before, during, and after the 2016 general election; fueling speculation that private conversations between President Trump and senior aides was intercepted by Obama officials prior to his inauguration.
According to Fox News, the wiretapping was authorized by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) in 2014 as part of an ongoing FBI investigation over Manafort’s financial ties to Russia and Ukrainian officials.
The initial order expired in 2016 but was extended to early 2017.
Paul Manafort is a central figure in special counsel Robert Mueller’s ongoing investigation into allegations that Russian officials meddled in the US presidential election on behalf of the Trump campaign.
His home in northern Virginia was raided by FBI officials in July.
The revelation that the federal government wiretapped senior Trump aides vindicates comments made by the President earlier this year, claiming that Obama officials had been listening to his private conversations.
“Terrible! Just found out that Obama had my ‘wires tapped’ in Trump Tower just before the victory. Nothing found. This is McCarthyism!” tweeted the President in March.
BOMBSHELL: Obama SECRETLY Protected TERROR GROUP to Appease Iran
A bombshell report published in Politico this week outlines the Obama administration’s secret efforts to let terror-group Hezbollah “off the hook” in an effort to appease Tehran ahead of the Iranian nuclear agreement.
The explosive report, titled “The Secret Backstory of How Obama Let Hezbollah Off the Hook” shows President Obama’s covert decision to back-off an American law enforcement crackdown on Hezbollah, even as the Jihadi network “funneled Cocaine into the United States” to finance its efforts.
“In its determination to secure a nuclear deal with Iran, the Obama administration derailed an ambitious law enforcement campaign targeting drug trafficking by the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah, even as it was funneling cocaine into the United States,” writes Politico.
“Obama administration officials threw an increasingly insurmountable series of roadblocks in its way, according to interviews with dozens of participants who in many cases spoke for the first time about events shrouded in secrecy,” the author adds.
Hezbollah is a militant, anti-Israeli terror organization based in Lebanon and backed by the Iranian regime. Iran uses the network as a launching pad for attacks against Israeli soldiers stationed near the Lebanese border.
Hezbollah and Israel waged a direct war against each other during the 2006 Israeli-Lebanon War.