Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) appeared on Fox News Channel’s “Kelly File” last night and had some strong criticisms for President Obama, saying he clearly “needs a refresher course on who our friends are and who our enemies are.”
Zeldin was responding to reports that American tax dollars are being spent to actively defeat Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in the upcoming elections.
Zeldin and Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) sent a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry outlining their concerns that the President has used the government of the United States to “exercise any influence over elections in a foreign country.”
A pro-Palestinian group known as OneVoice is allegedly working in close conjunction with “Victory 2015,” a group with strong ties to Obama’s former deputy national field director, Jeremy Bird. The groups are expected to merge prior to the Israeli elections.
Cruz and Zeldin wrote that such influence on foreign political campaigns is “something all would agree would be highly inappropriate.”
Zeldin told Kelly that the president doesn’t seem to know who America’s friends or enemies are any more.
Both members of Congress are demanding that the State Department release information on the amount of funding groups fighting to defeat Netanyahu have received from the U.S. government.
The letter states that the president has no right to use tax dollars to play party politics thousands of miles away from his own country.
“Of course, private American citizens are free to engage in political activities according to their inclinations,” the lawmakers’ letter declared, adding:
But given the overtly partisan nature of this particular case, we are deeply concerned by the relationship that also exists between OneVoice and the Department of State.
Cross-posted at the Mental Recession