This is simply outrageous. Obama attacked the Koch Brothers, private citizens, in a tweet last night to try and intimidate them into revealing who their donors are:
I’ve never seen this in my lifetime, that a President of the United States used his office to intimidate a private citizen for any reason, especially when they have done absolutely nothing unlawful. He’s basically just given his Occupy troops tacit permission to follow his example of intimidation.
Here is what Jim Geraghty had to say about it this morning:
At 9:13 Eastern, Barack Obama – presumably, one of his staffers – tweeted, “Add your name to demand that the Koch brothers make their donors public.”
The Obama campaign message is: “Americans for Prosperity, the special-interest front group run by the oil billionaire Koch brothers, is claiming that its donors are “tens of thousands” of folks “from all walks of life.” We’re asking them to prove it by disclosing their donors to the public. Demand the truth by adding your name.”
Mister President, with all due respect, who the heck (not my first choice of words) are you to demand private citizens engaged in free speech disclose their donors when they are not required to by law? Who made you king?
That’s none of your darn business, and the government has no business snooping around in the financial information of those who disagree with its current head of state.
Also, Mr. President, tell the flunky who wrote that petition that you can’t “ask” and “demand” at the same time.
Oh, and the Koch brothers are “oil billionaires” the way you’re a multimillionaire recording artist. Here’s the summary from Forbes: “Koch Industries owns a diverse group of companies involved in refining and chemicals; process and pollution control equipment and technologies; minerals and fertilizer; fibers and polymers; commodity and financial trading and services; and forest and consumer products.”
To summarize, President “I’ll Use SuperPACs After All” is demanding Americans for Prosperity turn over a list of donors that no law requires.