It’s truly laughable that after 8 years of serving as Chief Community Organizer some of his final thoughts involve whether or not his communist mother shaved her legs and that after billing the American taxpayers just under $100 million for his elaborate family and separate vacations, he would have the audacity to say how Michelle deserved a “nice vacation.”
We all know the rules are a little different for the political class. But Michelle Obama’s trips overseas hardly qualify as official business. They are lavish, extravagant, and excessive by any reasonable metric. Moreover, these latest revelations are hardly isolated.
They are part of continuum reaching back across to the earliest days of the Obama administration. Recently, Judicial Watch obtained flight expense records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force revealing that Michelle Obama’s June 2015 trip to the United Kingdom and Italy, accompanied by her daughters and mother, cost the taxpayers $240,495.67 in flight expenses alone.
The records were released in response to a Freedom of Information (FOIA) request filed on June 22, 2015. The flights to London, England; and Milan, Venice, and Vicenza, Italy, for the June 15 – 21, 2015, trip totaled 20:35 hours at the cost of $11,684 per hour, bringing the flight expense total to $240,495.67, according to the Air Force documents.
The Obama White House, true to form, tried spin the trip as a public service that was part of Michelle Obama’s campaign to push her “Let Girls Learn” initiative and “Let’s Move” anti-obesity campaign.
Good grief. Everyone should deny themselves and streamline their lifestyles except for the Obamas.
Press reports make it evident the Obama entourage set aside substantial time for tourism. In London, Michelle Obama joined Prince Harry for afternoon tea at Kensington Palace.
And the White House press office conceded that, while in Italy, “The First Lady will also visit cultural sites in Venice before returning to Washington, D.C.”
Judicial Watch released records revealing significant taxpayer-funded travel expenses for a Michelle Obama trip in July. Those records from the U.S. Department of the Air Force showed that Michelle Obama’s 2014 trip to China cost American taxpayers $362,523.53 in travel expenses alone. Mrs. Obama, her daughters, and her mother spent March 19 – 26 in China, in a trip highlighted by extended visits to some of the country’s most popular tourist sites.
Apparently, the Obama family continues to bill the taxpayers for costly tourism jaunts thinly disguised as humanitarian crusades. If Michelle Obama wants to take tea with Prince Harry or enthuse over Da Vinci’s The Last Supper, she is certainly entitled to do so, but not at taxpayer expense.
Since the beginning of Barack Obama’s administration, the Obamas have become increasingly notorious for unnecessary, luxurious travel, under the guise of official business.Newsmax
President Obama admitted he cried at a recent senior staff send-off dinner — and is now claiming that he’d be able to get re-elected if he had run for president again.
“I am confident in this vision because I’m confident that if I had run again and articulated it, I think I could’ve mobilized a majority of the American people to rally behind it,” Obama said in a “The Axe Files” podcast interview by former aide David Axelrod.
“I know that in conversations that I’ve had with people around the country, even some people who disagreed with me, they would say, ‘The vision, the direction that you point towards is the right one,’” the outgoing president said.
The Constitution limits a president to serving only two terms.
Reflecting on his presidency, Obama said he’s been inspired by the “heart” and “idealism” of his staff.
“We had our senior staff dinner … I got through about four minutes of the thing and started getting the hanky out,” he admitted.
Obama said it feels like the “band” is breaking up, but that he wants to devote his post-presidency to growing the “talent” and vision that began in his two terms as president of the United States.
“Overall, this place never got cynical,” he said, praising the many aides he’s had over the years.
“We never had that fire snuffed out. That is a point of pride for me,” he added.
The podcast interview at times got personal, with Obama discussing his upbringing and talking about how his mom was a “hippie.”
“But she always insisted on shaving her legs,” he told his former aide.
The president also looked forward to leaving the White House, saying he’s going to take his wife, Michelle, on a “nice” vacation because “she deserves it.”
The first family is currently in Hawaii for a two-week break before Inauguration Day on Jan. 20. –NYP
