Welcome to Day 98 of Sean Spicer’s World of Alternative Facts
During an extraordinarily short White House press briefing Thursday, Sean Spicer effectively blamed the Obama administration for President Donald Trump’s hiring of his now-fired former National Security Advisor Mike Flynn.Â
It should be noted that President Obama fired Mike Flynn before he was hired by the Trump campaign and promoted by the Trump White House.
Shortly after his first firing, Flynn turned up in Moscow, at the same table, in the seat next to President Vladimir Putin, at an event for the Russian propaganda machine media outlet RT. For the speech he gave that day he reportedly was paid $45,386.
Asked about Flynn amid the news that the Pentagon Inspector General is now investigating Flynn for taking money from foreign governments, Spicer basically blamed Trump’s hiring of Flynn on the Obama administration.
Spicer said that because Flynn passed a background check during Obama’s tenure, they saw no reason to have him go through another background check, even though Flynn was fired, and even though it was very public knowledge he had ties to Russia.
“General Flynn was a career military officer who maintained a high level security clearance throughout his career in the military,” Spicer said. “His clearance was last re-issued by the Obama administration in 2016 with full knowledge of his activities that occurred in 2015.”
It’s unclear that that’s accurate. Flynn “retired” in April of 2014. It’s possible though unclear he had his security clearance re-issued after that.
“Every individual [who] came into this White House either applied for a security clearance or had one,” Spicer told reporters. “Everyone in the government goes through the same SF86 process. Every single person. And so why would you re-run a background check on someone who was the head of the Defense Intelligence Agency that had and did maintain a high level security clearance?” he asked.Â
It’s important to note here that the American public elected President Donald Trump because he supposedly is a great business person, and would run the government like a business. No reputable public corporation, especially one that deals in sensitive information, would not have run a full background check on Flynn given these circumstances.
Not only was Flynn fired by the Obama administration, but last month he was forced to retroactively register as a foreign agent and disclose he has been paid over a half-million dollars by foreign governments, including during the time he worked for the Trump campaign.
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