New York Post Fake Outrage of the Day: Obama’s ‘Foreign Donations’

Yet another fake outrage recycled from the 2008 election
Wingnuts • Views: 32,376

Oh no, nothing biased about this headline at the always-wingnutty New York Post: Obama campaign accepted foreign Web donation — and may be hiding more.

Sure sounds sinister, doesn’t it? He MAY BE HIDING MORE!

Of course, if you bother to read past the headline, you discover that this “foreign web donation” is a claim without evidence by exactly one British citizen, who says he made two $5.00 donations to the Obama campaign through its website.

Yes, he’s claiming he donated a grand total of $10.00. And that’s not the end of the silliness.

Chris Walker, a British citizen who lives outside London, told The Post he was able to make two $5 donations to President Obama’s campaign this month through its Web site while a similar attempt to give Mitt Romney cash was rejected. It is illegal to knowingly solicit or accept money from foreign citizens.

Walker said he used his actual street address in England but entered Arkansas as his state with the Schenectady, NY, ZIP code of 12345.

That’s right; he entered a US state and zip code, which means that if he didn’t just make up the whole story, this British citizen committed credit card fraud. So yes, it does look like someone did something illegal here.

The right wing has been pushing this bogus attack for months now; this is just the latest eruption of a fake outrage recycled from the 2008 election, when they made the exact same baseless claims.

ThinkProgress debunked the nonsense earlier this month, and pointed out the sheer hypocrisy of these charges, while Mitt Romney accepts millions of dollars from foreign sources — legally, thanks to the disastrous Citizens United ruling: Why the Obama Foreign Donation ‘Scandal’ Is Pure Fiction.

Ironically, it is conservative blogger Erick Erickson of RedState.com and CNN, who best demonstrates that the Obama campaign does not accept contributions from foreign donors. In a potentially illegal attempt to provide a point, Erickson acknowledges that he falsely claimed to be Boris Noridnikova of Moscow, Russia and attempted to donate $5 to the Obama campaign online. After giving a fake passport number, the contribution was ultimately rejected after a few days of processing.

The lack of scandal in this report does not, however, mean that foreign nationals may not be influencing U.S. elections. The Center for Public Integrity reported Friday that Restore Our Future, the pro-Romney super PAC, accepted a $1 million contribution from OdysseyRe of Connecticut, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Canadian insurance and investment management giant Fairfax Financial Holdings Limited. Thanks to the Supreme Court’s 5-4 Citizens United ruling, this is legal — as long as no foreign nationals direct the spending.

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Last updated: 2023-04-04 11:11 am PDT
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