President Obama slammed California Congressman Darrell Issa on Sunday night as a politician “whose primary contribution to the United States has been to obstruct and to waste taxpayer dollars on trumped-up investigations that have led nowhere.”
Obama made the remarks at a fundraiser in La Jolla, Calif., to raise money for Democratic Congressional candidates. Among the candidates in attendance at the event was Doug Applegate, a Democrat in a closely contested race north of San Diego against Issa, R-Vista.
Obama pointed out that Issa recently sent out a campaign mailer with a complimentary picture of the president sitting at his desk signing legislation. The mailer quoted Issa as saying he is “very pleased” that Obama signed into law a bipartisan bill that Issa co-sponsored to give protections in the justice system to victims of sexual assault.
Obama called Issa’s mailer “the definition of chutzpah.”
“Here's a guy who called my administration perhaps the most corrupt in history – despite the fact that actually we have not had a major scandal in my administration,” Obama said. “(And) that, when Trump was suggesting that I wasn’t even born here, said, ‘Well, I don’t know,’ was not sure. We can pull up the quotes.”
“And now he’s sending out brochures touting his cooperation with me,” Obama said. “Now, that is shameless. To his credit, I will say that he has been very pleasant to me at our Christmas parties.”
Issa relentlessly criticized Obama during his four years as chairman of the House Oversight Committee, launching numerous investigations of the administration.
Issa, in a statement responding to Obama’s remarks, said there have been scandals under the president’s watch “where Americans died overseas and veterans have died here at home.”
“You’d be hard pressed to find anyone who thinks I’ve done too much to hold Washington accountable. I’ve worked with the administration on good legislation where it was possible, and called out wrongdoing wherever I saw it, and will continue to do so,” Issa said in the statement.
Sean Cockerham: 202-383-6016, @seancockerham
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