Stephanopoulos did not challenge Graham's false suggestion that Obama "borrow[ed] money from" Rezko "to build his house"
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SUMMARY: On This Week, George Stephanopoulos did not challenge Sen. Lindsey Graham's false suggestion that Sen. Barack Obama "borrow[ed] money" from Antoin "Tony" Rezko "to build his house." In fact, the Obamas established a land trust to purchase the property and took out a $1.32 million mortgage on the home, financed through the Northern Trust Co. And the Obamas did not "build" the house -- they purchased an existing home.
On the June 8 edition of ABC's This Week, responding to Sen. John Kerry's (D-MA) assertion that Sen. John McCain "still has lobbyists running his campaign" and that much of his funding comes from "these special kinds of interests that have fought against real reform in Washington," Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said: "John McCain didn't borrow money from a guy going to jail to build his house, so if we're going to start talking about associations, that's fine, we'll do that." Host George Stephanopoulos did not challenge Graham's false suggestion that Sen. Barack Obama "borrow[ed] money" from convicted Chicago businessman Antoin "Tony" Rezko "to build his house." In fact, as Media Matters for America has documented, legal records show that Barack and Michelle Obama established a land trust to purchase the property and took out a $1.32 million mortgage on the home, financed through the Northern Trust Co., not Rezko. Also, the Obamas did not "build" the house -- they purchased an existing home. As the Chicago Tribune reported, "The home and lot sales closed on June 15, 2005. A land trust controlled by the Obamas bought the house for $1.65 million, and the Obamas secured a $1.32 million mortgage from Northern Trust to complete that purchase."
Graham's comments echo those of another McCain supporter, former Massachusetts governor and Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who falsely asserted during the June 5 edition of Fox News' Fox & Friends that Rezko "financed" Obama's house.
From the June 8 edition of ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos:
KERRY: If John McCain is such a reformer, how did all these lobbyists start running his campaign? How do you have lobbyists who lobby for the Burma junta? How do you have lobbyists who represent the predatory practitioners that brought us the housing crisis? These are the people running his campaign. He still has lobbyists running his campaign, so there's just a world of difference between the perception. Much of the money that John McCain is raising today comes from all of these special kinds of interests that have fought against real reform in Washington.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator.
KERRY: When Lindsey says we have "a high-taxer" and a "low-taxer" -- we just pointed out that Barack Obama has a tax cut for middle class Americans. He simply wants to make the tax code fair again and work for everybody in a nation that can't afford to just give away, give away, give away all the money, facing all the crises that we're facing.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Graham, your response.
GRAHAM: Well, Charlie Black helped run Ronald Reagan's campaign -- he is not lobbying now. Rick Davis ran John's campaign in 2000. Mark Salter is his alter ego. Phil Graham is a great friend. John McCain didn't borrow money from a guy going to jail to build his house, so if we're going to start talking about associations, that's fine, we'll do that. But let's talk about the question of bipartisanship.
George does a better job than Sean Hannity though.
I have a five-month-old miniature daschund puppy that knows more about journalistic integrity than George Snuffaluffagus OR Sean Insanity.
I think you're underestimating your puppy.
Maybe your right. My puppy knows only to poop on the wee-wee pad. Snuffaluffagus and Insanity spread their crap far and wide.....
The interesting thing is Republican Graham is NOT talking to anyone with sense, who knows better.
Graham is instead trying to "firm up the base" of Republican voters who believe any damn thing that's said on TV which is negative about Democrats.
Graham doesn't fear a FACT CHECKER: He knows he's lying. All he fears is that the GOP "base" might become smarter. He's betting against it ... and sadly, he's probably right. The GOP seem to hold a 25 - 30% base whose distinguishing characteristic is that everything they think they "know" is WRONG. They've been misled, and they remain misled.
They've been misled, and they remain misled.
They've also been given an outlet to vent their fear and hatred of anyone who is not like them, i.e. minorities, women, gays, Arabs, etc.
6/8/08
Please e-mail G. Stephanopolis,
George!!
For God's sake! Obama did not "borrow money from Rezko to build his house."
Come on, Man!! This is just blatant right-wing talk radio lies. You're better than this.
You can't just sit there like a wimp!!! You can't just sit there and suck up to your corporate masters. Does G. Will just sit there?
George, you're not a bad guy. I know you want to be fair. But you've gotta be on your toes. You can't just sit there!!!
Even if Obama had borrowed money from somebody who was going to jail, what's wrong with that? Seems like a good choice, as inmates don't have a lot of clout as far as policy.McCain's sponsors are running free, and connected.
Pretty sad, when even in Grampy's fictional propaganda scenarios, he comes out worse.
yep, didn't take long for it to start. by the time the GE is done, union steelworkers will have built obama's house from scratch, paid by rezko under the table.
this is only one of many issues that the republicans will use, there are so many to pick from. be prepared to be bombarded by republican 527's.
cpinva,
You do realize that there are right-wing interns and idea thiefs lurking around here.......
I fear you may have given a feesable idea for them to run with...... since the right wing collectively have little in the way for originality.
Geez - is this all they got? Sen. Obama is a church-going Christian - so the right wingnutz attack his pastor. They attack him based on a guy who lives in his neighborhood. They attack Sen. Obama with the scarey Black man Muslim - and spread rumors that Sen. Obama himself might be a Muslim.
Their problem is the Americans who are going to vote and win this election in November just don't care about this silly stuff. This election is a stark choice between the old politics of personal destruction and the new politics of hope and change for the better. Sen. McCain does not yet understand this. He might after he gets waxed in November...
Kerry is talking about campaign advisers who have a direct hand in crafting policy in the McCain camp, so Graham has to resort to this stupid, stupid bottom of the barrel guilt by association crap. Sheer desperation.
It's gonna be a real ugly defeat for the Republicans this year.
TPM Muckracker put this issue to rest for me. It has a picture of the Obama residence and the adjoining tract which has been the cause of the controversy. The previous owner of the house wanted to sell the tract, which looks like an oversized dog run, concurrent with the sale of the house. The Obama's could not afford to buy the tract and the house.
Rezco bought the tract and then sold it with a neighboring house. Not much here for the objective observer.
That's not exactly what happened. You are right that the owner wanted two sales on one day. There were two properties for sale. Obama wanted one and the seller said he wanted both properties to close on the same day. Rezko is a land developer so Obama called him and asked him if he was interested in the undeveloped land. So Rezko's wife ended up buying it. Afterwards the Obamas asked if they could buy 10 feet of the land to make their backyard bigger so Rezko's wife sold it to them for what it should have cost.
This is a non-story. Obama did not gain anything other than a house and some land for what they were worth. End of story.
Chicago Tribune's Eric Zorn has a column on this here http://blogs.chicagotribune.com/news_columnists_ezorn/
Note Rezko was just convicted of everything Pat Fitzgerald could come up with after years of unlimited investigation, and Obama was mentioned only in passing, and this deal not at all. If there was a hint of impropriety, I'm sure it would have come up.
In passing, note that the way Kerry droned on before this issue came up left me hoping he'd take a long cruise between now and November. I don't see him campaigning for Obama as an asset.
Equal Time