Obama's Quid Pro Quo

As yesterday's report was going out, news was breaking from the State Department regarding the $400 million in foreign currency that was paid to Iran.

Under intense questioning by reporters, State Department spokesman John Kirby initially suggested the money was "leverage." But he finally conceded what we have all known -- the money was ransom and they lied about it.

Consider this exchange:
 

REPORTER: In basic English you are saying you wouldn't give them the $400,000,000 in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?

KIRBY: That's correct.

Kirby also admitted that the administration was less than transparent about the exchange. "I certainly would agree that this particular fact is not something we have talked about in the past," Kirby said.

But as we noted yesterday, President Obama said quite a bit. Just a few weeks ago, he lectured reporters and mocked the American people who dared to question his actions. Let me remind once again you of the president's reaction when this issue erupted:

"We do not pay ransom. We didn't here, and we won't in the future. . . And the notion that we would somehow start now, in this high-profile way . . . defies logic. . . It's been interesting to watch this story surface. Some of you may recall, we announced these payments in January. Many months ago. There wasn't a secret. . . This wasn't some nefarious deal. . . We were completely open with everybody about it and it is interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again."

Clearly, the president wasn't "completely open with everybody," and his State Department spokesman just admitted that. And he also conceded that it was a ransom, when the president insisted it wasn't.

By the way, the liberal media devoted six times more coverage to the "lying Olympians" than to our lying government officials. The American people deserve the truth, but you won't get it from big media.

Russia Moves In

One of the much-hyped benefits of the nuclear deal, according to its supporters, was that it would open up Iran and lead to better relations across the board. That has not happened. In fact, Iran's supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, recently denounced the United States and vowed that there would be no more negotiations.

Then he went a step further -- he strengthened Iran's alliance with Russia. For the first time in the regime's history, he allowed foreign military forces, in this case Russian bombers, to be based inside Iran. The balance of power in the Middle East has been radically altered by Obama's nuclear deal.

As always, columnist Charles Krauthammer has an insightful take on the situation:
 

"The nuclear deal was supposed to begin a rapprochement between Washington and Tehran. Instead, it has solidified a strategic-military alliance between Moscow and Tehran. . . [Russia's] bombing runs cross Iraqi airspace. Before President Obama's withdrawal from Iraq, that could not have happened.

"The resulting vacuum has not only created a corridor for Russian bombing, it has gradually allowed a hard-won post-Saddam Iraq to slip into Iran's orbit. . .

"When Russia dramatically intervened last year, establishing air bases and launching a savage bombing campaign, Obama did nothing. Indeed, he smugly predicted that Vladimir Putin had entered a quagmire. Some quagmire. . .

"Consider what Putin has achieved. Dealt a very weak hand . . . he has restored Russia to great-power status. Reduced to irrelevance in the 1990s, it is now a force to be reckoned with. In Europe, Putin has unilaterally redrawn the map. . .

"Ukraine dismembered. Eastern Europe on edge. Syria a charnel house. Iran subsuming Iraq. Russia and Iran on the march across the entire northern Middle East.

"At the heart of this disorder is a simple asymmetry. . . The major revisionist powers -- China, Russia and Iran -- know what they want: power, territory, tribute. And they're going after it.

"Barack Obama takes Ecclesiastes' view that these are vanities, nothing but vanities. In the kingdom of heaven, no doubt. Here on earth, however -- Aleppo to Donetsk, Estonia to the Spratly Islands -- it matters greatly."

Join Me In D.C.!

Join me for the 2016 Values Voter Summit in Washington, D.C., September 9th - 11th. The Values Voter Summit is sponsored by American Values, AFA Action, the Center for Christian Statesmanship, the Family Research Council, FRC Action, First Liberty and United in Purpose.

Speakers at this year's Summit include:
 

• 2016 Republican presidential nominee Donald J. Trump
• Gov. Matt Bevin (R-KY)
• Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR)
• Dr. James Dobson
• Lt. Gov. Dan Forest (R-NC)
• Sen. James Lankford (R-OK)
• Lt. Col. Oliver North
• Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) and many more.

  Breakout sessions will include a wide range of topics from engaging the Millennial generation and mobilizing the Christian vote to defending religious liberty and how the United States deals with Iran. Saturday evening will feature a gala dinner honoring my friend Dr. Bill Bennett for his decades of service on cultural, education and political issues.

  Click here to learn more or to register online.

  I look forward to seeing you there!