Accuracy in Media’s Cliff Kincaid raises some very salient points about the background of Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Huma Abedin. In particular, the comparisons he identifies between any alleged background checks administered to Huma and Van Jones are palpable.
Kincaid points to what seems like a ‘thou doth protest too much’ defense of Huma by none other than Michele Bachmann’s former campaign chief, Ed Rollins. In the wake of pro-Huma positions held by members of the Obama Administration as well as members of the Republican establishment – like John McCain and John Boehner – who are on record as defending Huma, Kincaid highlights some inconsistencies on the part of that Republican establishment.
Via AIM:
Equally bizarre has been the rhetoric of Fox News contributor Edward Rollins, who used to work for Rep. Michele Bachmann, one of five members of Congress raising questions of the State Department Inspector General about Abedin. “I can assure Mrs. Bachmann, that Ms. Abedin has been thru every top clearance available and would never have been given her position with any questions of her loyalty to this country,” Rollins insists.
But Rollins cited no factual basis on which to make such a sweeping allegation. How does he, a former Republican official, know anything at all about the background investigations, if any, of top Democratic or Obama administration officials?
A question for Rollins, who has assumed the mantle of national security expert: Did Abedin get the same background investigation enjoyed by Van Jones before he lost his job at the White House? At the time that Jones was forced to resign, in response to damaging disclosures about his communist background, Rollins said Jones “did the right thing” by resigning because he had become an embarrassment to the White House. Abedin is quickly becoming another such embarrassment.
But while Jones was only in his job for six months, Abedin has been by Hillary’s side for many years, the last three as Deputy Chief of Staff to the Secretary of State.
Kincaid seems to be of the mind that Boehner has the authority to create a House Committee that can address this and other issues:
The growing controversy suggests the need for House Speaker John Boehner to do his job, rather than serve as an apologist for the Obama Administration. That means reinstating a House Internal Security Committee to get to the bottom of such matters.
If there is a legitimate controversy over how Abedin got her job and whether her family connections present a problem, the matter should be moved beyond the Inspectors General of State and other agencies, and put under the purview of a new House Committee on Internal Security. The congress hasn’t had a committee or subcommittee like this for decades because congressional liberals abolished them all on the grounds they were too “McCarthyite.”Key questions deserving answers include: who, if anyone, investigated Abedin’s background, and were they made aware of the information about her Muslim Brotherhood connections?
We have a senior senator, the Speaker of the House and a top Republican former campaign official jumping to the defense of an aide to the Secretary of State who is a central figure in a U.S. administration embracing that organization. This is the real story, and it is a bipartisan scandal.