Under Obama, the bar for integrity was set incredibly low. Under Trump, things have changed.

As has been well reported, Michael Flynn recently resigned from his position of National Security Adviser when it was discovered he had lied to Vice President Mike Pence.

This isn't the first time in history a member of the US government has been caught lying, and it won't be the last, but the big difference this time is that Flynn actually took responsibility for his actions and resigned.

Under Obama, things were very much different, and telling lies wasn't regarded as such a big deal. In fact Obama himself was caught lying to the American public on more than one occasion.

Example 1:

Remember when Obama lied about not knowing about Hillary's private server?

From the Podesta emails exposed by Wikileaks:

"POTUS just said he found out HRC was using her personal email when he saw it on the news."

"we need to clean this up - he has emails from her - they do not say state.gov"

Here's the interview referred to in the email where Obama claimed he first learned about Hillary's private email server when he saw it on the news...



From the interview (skip to 54s):

"Mr President when did you first learn that Hillary Clinton used an email system outside the US government for official business while she was Secretary of State?"

Obama: "Er, the same time everybody else learned it through news reports."

There are additional interviews you can find on YouTube where Obama lied about Hillary Clinton's private email server.

Do a search on YouTube for 'Obama lied about Hillary Clinton's private server' and you'll find several videos. In among them you'll find this unambiguous, but dishonest, interview quote from Obama...

"Did you know about Hillary Clinton's use of a private email server?"

Obama: "No."

"While she was Secretary of State?"

Obama: "No."

What happened to Obama when he was caught lying about Hillary Clinton's private email server?

Nothing.

Obama stayed in office after being caught in this lie, and in fact he didn't even apologize.

Do a search on YouTube for 'Obama apologizes for lying about Hillary Clinton's private server' and see what comes up.

No apology comes up. Only more lies from Obama about the private server. There was no apology from Obama for lying to the American public.

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Example 2:

Remember when former Director of National Intelligence James Clapper was caught lying during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing?



From the interview (skip to 27s):

"So, what I wanted to see is if you could give me a yes or no answer to he question 'Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?

James Clapper: "No, sir."

"It does not?"

James Clapper: "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently perhaps collect, but not wittingly."

Thanks to Edward Snowden we now know that this was a lie. The NSA was engaged in a secret program to collect tens of millions of Americans' phone call records, web browsing histories, chat logs, email usage and even their physical locations.

To present both sides of the argument, Clapper later claimed he wasn't lying, he just 'forgot'. I have to say, spying on tens of millions of Americans is a fairly significant detail to 'forget'!

It's also worth noting that Senator Wyden gave his questions to Clapper's office a day in advance of the hearing. After the hearing, he also gave Clapper a chance to amend his answer. Clapper opted not to do so.

What happened to James Clapper when he was caught lying to the American public during a United States Senate Select Committee on Intelligence hearing?

Nothing.

James Clapper remained the Director of National Intelligence until the end of Obama's presidency on January 20th, 2017.

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Additional Examples:

Remember when Hillary Clinton lied about being named after Sir Edmund Hillary, one of the first two men to climb Mount Everest? (Hillary was six when Sir Edmund Hillary climbed Mount Everest, so presumably her mother was a time-traveller.)

Remember when Hillary Clinton lied about landing under sniper fire in Bosnia?

Remember in 2010 when Hillary Clinton approved a deal to sell 20% of the US's uranium to Russia? And remember how Bill Clinton got paid $500,000 in 2010 to give a speech to a Russian bank with ties to the Russian government? Remember how the cash flowed into the Clinton Foundation after the uranium deal?

Remember when Obama and former CIA director John Brennan lied about the Bin Laden raid?

Remember when John Brennan lied about civilian deaths by drone strikes?

Remember when John Brennan lied about spying on the US Senate?

Remember when former US Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice lied to America about Benghazi?

What happened to Susan Rice?

Obama made her National Security Adviser! The position Michael Flynn has just resigned from!

This raises the question, given the many examples of dishonesty going unpunished under Obama, why has Michael Flynn resigned?

The simple answer is that Donald Trump expects and demands higher standards than Obama. As the evidence shows, Obama was very willing on numerous occasions to overlook examples of dishonesty from his staff.

Donald Trump has high standards. He expects his staff to meet these high standards.

Although it's disappointing to discover that Michael Flynn lied to Mike Pence, one positive to come out of the situation is that it has shown that the indifference to corruption and acceptance of dishonesty that was so prevalent under Obama is now a thing of the past.

Trump and Pence need absolute trust in their staff. They demand high standards. Under Obama, the bar for integrity was set incredibly low. Under Trump, things have changed.

Donald Trump, the man who's catchphrase used to be 'You're fired!' has just fired someone over something which under Obama would have been regarded as relatively minor. As Sean Spicer said in his press conference, it was not an issue of legality, but an issue of trust. A precedent has been set, and it will now be applied across the government. Government officials can now be fired for lying, or providing misinformation.

The acceptance of dishonesty that plagued Obama's presidency is now a thing of the past.

The bar has been set, and it's been set high. The swamp can, and will, be drained.