It would appear that John McCain, John Boehner, Marco Rubio, Ed Rollins, and a handful of other Republicans owe Rep. Michele Bachmann an apology for defending Hillary Clinton’s Deputy Chief of Staff last year after a letter sent by Bachmann and five other congressmen identified Abedin as having familial connections to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Why should they apologize? Keep reading.
Imagine the following headline appearing last June:
Hillary Clinton Deputy Huma Abedin Steps Down Amid Questions about her family being linked to the Muslim Brotherhood.
We never saw that headline but thanks to an article that appeared in the New York Times this week, we now have evidence such a headline would have been accurate.
Last June 13th, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and four other Congressmen sent five letters to five separate Inspectors General expressing concerns about possible Muslim Brotherhood infiltration. One of them was sent to the State Department’s Deputy IG (Hillary was cc’d) and identified Abedin’s ties to the Brotherhood through her family.
More than a month later – in July – Senator John McCain (R-AZ) took to the Senate floor and ripped Bachmann for what she had done in naming Abedin.
Little did McCain know – because it was never announced – Abedin had already stepped down, that is if you believe what’s written in the eighth paragraph of a New York Times article from this week. If the Times article is accurate, McCain and any other Republican who defended Abedin looks quite foolish today.
Here’s the money quote buried in the New York Times article:
Ms. Abedin reached her new working arrangement in June 2012, when she returned from maternity leave, quietly leaving her position as deputy chief of staff and becoming a special government employee, which is essentially a consultant. A State Department official said that change freed her from the requirement that she disclose her private earnings for the rest of the year on her financial disclosure forms. Still, during that period, she continued to be identified publicly in news reports as Mrs. Clinton’s deputy chief of staff.
Of course, this means that as McCain was defending Abedin in the latter’s capacity as Hillary’s Deputy, Abedin had already stepped down.
So, where are the apologies to Rep. Bachmann?
Senator McCain, you first. Then, Speaker Boehner, it’s your turn. Senator Rubio?
In fact, check out this long list of Huma Abedin’s defenders. Keep in mind that they all did so while operating from the faulty premise that Abedin was still Hillary’s Deputy Chief of Staff when, according to the New York Times, she stepped down without telling anyone.