Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton has held both Democrats and Republicans to account, and he believes Republicans need to be even more diligent and proactive in Obama’s second term in combating the crony capitalistic government corruption — such as green energy boondoggles like Solyndra — that President Barack Obama has said would be the “new normal.”
Fitton also told Breitbart News that the rise of non-mainstream media sources: new media outlets, talk radio, and independent institutions like Judicial Watch and the Government Accountability Institute can often hold government accountable better than Congress.
Republicans, Fitton said, would be better off holding Obama accountable for any recess appointments, legislation that is done through the rule-making process, and his refusal to enforce the nation’s immigration laws.
Fitton also specifically focused on two Obama administration scandals that resulted in dead Americans — Fast and Furious and Benghazi.
He said strong accountability is needed on Fast and Furious “even after the election” because “too many people are dead.”
Likewise, Fitton accused “all the president’s men and women” of covering up what happened in Libya, and he said those in “Washington have an interest in retaining power and getting friends and gaining influence.” This is why it is so difficult to make their actions transparent.
Americans are fed up with the permanent political class that enriches itself through crony capitalism, and Judicial Watch has been on the front lines since the Clinton administration demanding transparency and shining a light on the secret actions of government officials and agencies. The watchdog organization held the Bush administration to account for their secret Energy Task Force and K-Street projects and has unearthed documents that exposed details about some of the most egregious Obama administration scandals like Fast and Furious and the New Black Panthers case.
A new film, “District of Corruption,” details Judicial Watch’s efforts and Washington’s bipartisan culture of cronyism. On Thanksgiving, Fox News’ “Hannity” aired a one-hour special about the movie.
The movie is based on Fitton’s book, The Corruption Chronicles, which is a companion to the movie. The book became a New York Times and #1 national bestseller, because Americans from both political parties deeply care and are outraged by Washington corruption and the permanent political class. Reviewers called the book a “readable, engaging, persuasive account of what has gone wrong” and “easily the most comprehensive tour of the ‘Chicago way’ we have seen to date.” And it, like the movie, resonated with Americans, because it forcefully detailed how Judicial Watch combated corruption in the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations.
In fact, a Breitbart News/Judicial Watch Election Night exit poll, conducted by Public Opinion Strategies, found a staggering 85% of voters were concerned about government corruption in Washington, D.C.
More people are concerned with corruption in Washington because it has gotten worse under Obama, who falsely promised to have the most transparent administration on record before he took the oath of office.
In fact, corruption has become so bad under Obama that Fitton does not even like the term bailouts to describe some of the Obama administration’s corporate giveaways, because he thinks it understates the crony capitalism associated with them.
He instead says the bailouts and government-backed loans to failing green energy companies should be called “rackets” where “special interests get pay-offs.”
“Never has so much money been spent with so little accountability,” Fitton said.
Fitton also said citizens cannot rely on Congress all the time to conduct investigations because “government investigating itself sometimes is not as successful” as those coming from outside the institutions of power.
In many instances, Fitton believes outside organizations “can get facts under the law better than through congress.”
He said these outside forces will be even more important the next four years, because Obama has indicated that he again wishes to try to “impose his will” on Congress and make Chicago-style politics “the new normal” in Washington. Fitton also said his organization, Judicial Watch, would redouble their efforts to hold the Obama administration to account.
“We can’t give up and have to be unafraid to demand accountability,” Fitton said.