WASHINGTON, Sept. 21, 2009
Obama Backs ACORN Investigation
President Says Video Showing Group's Workers Advising Couple Posing as Prostitute, Pimp to Lie Merits Probe
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Play CBS Video Video ACORN Misconduct On Tape Newly-released video captures employees from the social activist organization ACORN allegedly advising people posing as prostitutes and pimps how to cheat on taxes. Cynthia Bowers reports.
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In a video made by undercover conservative activists, an employee of the anti-poverty and housing rights group ACORN (right) advises a woman posing as a prostitute about how to avoid paying taxes and secure a home loan. (CBS)
The two ACORN workers are seen apparently advising the couple to lie about her profession and launder her earnings to get housing aid.
Watch: ACORN Misconduct Caught on Tape
The video is only the latest problem for the group, which had nearly $1 million embezzled by its founder's brother and has been accused of voter registration fraud. The House and Senate voted last week to deny federal funds to ACORN.
Mr. Obama told ABC's "This Week" in an interview broadcast Sunday that what he saw on the video "was certainly inappropriate and deserves to be investigated." But the president did not say who should investigate. And he said it is not a major national issue he pays much attention to.
"Frankly, it's not really something I've followed closely," Obama said. "I didn't even know that ACORN was getting a whole lot of federal money."
Asked about the president calling for an investigation, ACORN chief executive Bertha Lewis said Sunday, "Well, that's his opinion."
ACORN said last week it would order its own investigation of the video scandal. Lewis, who had promised to name an independent auditor by Friday, told "Fox News Sunday" that the announcement would take place Monday. She would not reveal the auditor.
Later Sunday, Lewis issued a statement saying, "We agree with President Obama's comments today that issues raised by the videos need to be investigated."
In the meantime, the group has suspended the admission of new clients to its housing program.
"Over the next several weeks, you will see us working triple time to get this review right so that we can refocus attention on ACORN's critical work for low- and moderate-income families," Lewis said in the statement.
The government is investigating ACORN's activities, though the scope of its activity is unknown. Voter registration fraud cases involving ACORN workers are pending. The Housing and Urban Development Department's inspector general has acknowledged an investigation is under way.
ACORN - short for the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now - started in 1970 in Arkansas to help the poor and today is a national, multimillion-dollar conglomerate. ACORN's political action committee endorsed Obama for president, and his campaign paid an ACORN subsidiary $832,000 to help get out the vote.
Obama, himself a former community organizer, has long-standing ties to the group, which he represented in 1995 in a lawsuit against the state of Illinois over the "motor-voter" law.
The group's Democratic leanings and political work have made it a target of Republicans, who led the drive last week to deny it any further federal funds.
California Republican Rep. Darrell Issa, a member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, pressed Lewis to reveal more about the group's operations.
"The bottom line is, there's no transparency in ACORN," said Issa, who also was on Fox.
"Here we have literally hundreds of organizations tied under the ACORN umbrella, and you can't even find out what their incorporation is, whether they pay taxes, who makes what," Issa said.
Lewis said she has made sure, since becoming chief executive last year, that affiliates have "firewalls" between them. "I've completely overhauled all of our finances, all of our controls," she said.
She also said founder Wade Rathke was fired immediately after it was discovered his brother, Dale, stole nearly $1 million from the organization nine years ago. In fact, Wade Rathke learned of the embezzlement in 2000, told only a few people but failed to report the embezzlement to law enforcement. An anonymous donor compensated the group for the missing money.
© MMIX, The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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- When will Katie Couric report on the whole acorn mess?
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- Sounds like Obama's A Korn Hole got another one over on The Troll. Jimmy cracked Korn and I don't care the master's gone away. cackle cackle cackle!
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- by pepperwood2 September 21, 2009 2:26 PM EDT
Sounds like Obama's A Korn Hole got another one over on The Troll. Jimmy cracked Korn and I don't care the master's gone away. cackle cackle cackle!
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"Bammy cracked acorn, and I don't care".....actually, I do care that the corrupt organization that helped Obama steal the election is prosecuted for their criminality and wide-open law breaking.
- by pepperwood2 September 21, 2009 2:26 PM EDT
- by faceofus September 21, 2009 11:58 AM EDT
Why did it take Obama so long?
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Well, after a week of the Liberal Media ignoring the story, making them look pretty pathetic, I'm sure the whitehouse was scrambling to turn this into an "extremist" or "right-wing fringe" story to save Acorn, but with repeated tapes (5) coming out right after another, they had no choice but to pretend minor outrage, and reluctantly "back" an investigation. - Reply to this comment
- Why did it take Obama so long?
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- BO only backs an investigation AFTER he has his back in a corner. If this hadn't been pressed by FOX, it wouldn't have come to light. Even FOX wasn't the one that got people really excited with the videos, it was a couple of bit players. CBS News doesn't cover the story, they rely on AP! CBS is no longer a news outlet. Pathetic.
BO's statement that this is not something he follows closely doesn't surprise me. After all what is $800+K (that his campaign donated to ACORN) when you are putting American taxpayers in the hole for trillions. - Reply to this comment
- How's the healthcare going libs ?? I see it's a big heaping pile of smoking rubble.....LMAO !!
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- by hungry1968-16 September 21, 2009 11:02 AM EDT
Post ONE LINK, to ANY story, where Obama mentions Hannity or O'Reilly.
ANY SPEECH, statement, comment -- whatever you got -- post it.
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This is the question he asks....."Post ONE LINK"
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So, I post ONE link.......This is his response:
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by hungry1968-16 September 21, 2009 11:21 AM EDT
That's it?!?!
That' the ONLY mention of Hannity that you can find
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Does this stupid lib know what "ONE link" means ? - Reply to this comment
- by ffoulkes-2009 September 21, 2009 11:16 AM EDT
Two...he was putting them in charge of the flipping 2010 CENSUS for goodness sakes.
They were NEVER going to "be in charge" of the Census, liar.
They were going to assist the Census Bureau in the inner cities, with getting the homeless people counted.
JUST LIKE THEY DID WITH EVERY CENSUS SINCE 1980!!!
Scrape, scrape, scrape...... - Reply to this comment
- by reasoned1955 September 21, 2009 11:15 AM EDT
Research the Annenberg Challenge, and another organization he served with, the Woods Fund, and B.O.'s involvement with ACORN. Arrive at your own conclusions.
The Annenburg Challenge was an attempt to get funding for Chicago's Public School system. (Since you conservatives OPPOSE education, I can see why this would bother you.)
The Woods Fund "is a private independent foundation in Chicago, whose goal is to increase opportunities for less-advantaged people and communities in the Chicago metropolitan area, including the opportunity to shape decisions affecting them."
I can't find ANY TIES between the Woods Fund and ACORN, other than on World Net Daily, AmericanThinker.com, and other conservative based, anti-American propaganda outlets, that ignore reality for their fabricated version of the truth. In fact, ACORN and the Woods Fund are entities that are COMPETING for the same donated dollars.
Keep scraping the bottom of that barrel.
You MIGHT find something. (Though I doubt it.) - Reply to this comment
- Here in MT, we had the Freemen out in the eastern part of our state. They were doing roughly the same things: refusing to pay taxes and teaching others how to avoid doing it.
When it comes to behavior such as is exhibited by ACORN, it is not specific to a particular political party by a long shot. - Reply to this comment
- I love how the President plays dumb when it comes to his pet project and group, ACORN.
As for his support of an investigation what else can he say, he has to agree considering the ridiulous ACORN behavior. ACORN is a fraud, he closely associates with them and said during the campaign to judge him based on his associations. In hindsight that was kind of a dumb thing to say (Rev Wright, Van Jones, Bill Ayers, ACORN, etc.) - Reply to this comment
- by reasoned1955 September 21, 2009 11:11 AM EDT
Although I'm loathe to respond to you again, I will. My claim is that investigations are on-going into voter fraud. Yes, the investigations also include actual fraudulent votes being cast (not by "Batman" dipstick). Obviously, you require precise responses to help you attain a basic understanding or to avoid your attempts to convolute the discussion. Perhaps someone else will play that game with you.
Obviously you've NEVER voted before, or you live in a state that doesn't use any form of identification when you vote (though no such state exists).
In NY, you have to have an ACTUAL voter registration card, and that card is mailed to a LEGITIMATE ADDRESS, and your name and address are BOTH checked by the county election bureau, against your SS number.
Voter fraud has been a problem for centuries, and isn't anything new. That being said, it's now virtually IMPOSSIBLE to cast ballots multiple times, with the current measures that are taken to prevent said fraud.
Why do you think that the republicans tried to have Diebold fix the elections for them? - Reply to this comment
- by fedup12 September 21, 2009 11:13 AM EDT
There are bad people in every organization that large. Even the Republican Party.
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But it's funny they found bad people in nearly all of the offices they went undercover at....just a few bad people, right lib ? bad people at every office, in every city, in every video...all 5 videos, right lib ? just a few bad apples in every office they have - Reply to this comment
- by NewYork-Joey September 21, 2009 11:06 AM EDT
You really are lazy aren't you lib ?? why are you asking others to do your research ??
Obama mentioned Hannity many times in interviews, I've heard it with my own ears several times....do you think the rest of the country is as ignorant as you are ?
I'm not asking him to "do my research".
I'm asking him to BACK UP HIS LIE, with proof.
Obama has NEVER called the liars out by name, and that is my single biggest problem with him - he let's liars lie at will, and NEVER says anything about them. That will ultimately be his downfall.
I mean, look at how brainwashed and uneducated YOU are, because tyou believe the BS unquestioningly! - Reply to this comment
- http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/09/obama-speaks-about-beer-w_n_165284.html
Lazy lib, here is Obama speaking about Hannity
Stop asking others to do your heavy lifting - Reply to this comment
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- That's it?!?!
That' the ONLY mention of Hannity that you can find, is him responding to a question about having a beer?!?!
Your comments get weaker and dumber by the day!!
- That's it?!?!
- by reasoned1955 September 21, 2009 10:24 AM EDT
You're right...I misspoke. I meant from ACORN's and the B.O. campaigns site. Thanks for the catch and giving me a chance to clarify.
Translation: "Yeah, you caught me in a lie. My bad!" - Reply to this comment
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- You've gotta be kidding? Are you really as ignorant as your posts make you out to be? I'll skip over your comments (such as they are) from now on.
- Obama and Acorn weren't associated ? don't make us laugh.
Then why did they cut off funding for Acorn, why did they stop them from participating in the 2010 Census, if they weren't associated with this white house/administration ?? - Reply to this comment
- by NewYork-Joey September 21, 2009 11:01 AM EDT
This is completely true, Obama's administration arranged that ACORN was to be closely involved with the 2010 Census, and have subsequently been removed from participating in the Census, due to their obvious corruption
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/us/politics/12acorn.html
http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/09/11/us-census-bureau-severs-ties-with-controversial-group-acorn/
http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/content/2009/sep/18/census-did-right-thing-dumping-acorn/news-opinion/
Links, since someone here can't research anything himself.
Hey liar:
ACORN worked with the US Census Bureau LONG before Obama won the presidency.
Obama didn't "put them in" anywhere.
They were ALREADY THERE when Obama took office!
Care to try again? - Reply to this comment
- by nolle61 September 21, 2009 10:53 AM EDT
We all know Barack Obama is watching FOX News so there's no way he can say he's not "following" this story.
He mentions Sean Hannity or Bill O'Reilly in almost every campaign speech.
Post ONE LINK, to ANY story, where Obama mentions Hannity or O'Reilly.
ANY SPEECH, statement, comment -- whatever you got -- post it. - Reply to this comment
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- by hungry1968-16 September 21, 2009 11:02 AM EDT
Post ONE LINK, to ANY story, where Obama mentions Hannity or O'Reilly.
ANY SPEECH, statement, comment -- whatever you got -- post it.
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You really are lazy aren't you lib ?? why are you asking others to do your research ??
Obama mentioned Hannity many times in interviews, I've heard it with my own ears several times....do you think the rest of the country is as ignorant as you are ?
- by hungry1968-16 September 21, 2009 11:02 AM EDT
- by ffoulkes-2009 September 21, 2009 10:35 AM EDT
Obama as recently as 3 months ago praised ACORN and mentioned how closely he would be working with them in his administration (including trying to put them in charge of the 2010 Census).
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This is completely true, Obama's administration arranged that ACORN was to be closely involved with the 2010 Census, and have subsequently been removed from participating in the Census, due to their obvious corruption
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/12/us/politics/12acorn.html
http://whitehouse.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/09/11/us-census-bureau-severs-ties-with-controversial-group-acorn/
http://www2.hickoryrecord.com/content/2009/sep/18/census-did-right-thing-dumping-acorn/news-opinion/
Links, since someone here can't research anything himself.
Liberals in this blog are desperately trying to dis-associate Obama with Acorn, when his administration clearly wanted Acorn to be closely involved in the Census and the Obama administration has now withdrawn ACORN's involvement, due to their corruption.......do you Libs really want to make believe Acorn and Obama were not associated ?? - Reply to this comment
