A second term for President Barack Obama would usher in a grim period for the nation, replete with an array of threats including a nuclear armed Iran, a stronger Russia and China and a sinking U.S. dollar, investigative journalist and author Richard Miniter tells Newsmax.TV.
Miniter, the New York Times bestselling author of “Shadow War” and “Losing Bin Laden,” predicted big changes should Obama defeat Mitt Romney.
“We’ll see a much harder line against Israel,” he said. “The Arab governments such as the Saudis, I know, are already afraid that America is prepared, under President Obama, to acquiesce to an Iranian bomb, to let that happen. That could be truly a dangerous moment for the country.
“The returning strength of Russia, the growing strength of China, overseas, these things will be left undefended." Miniter predicted. "The U.S. dollar will continue to sink in international trading which would have an enormous impact on America’s ability to finance its debt. Of course, we’re facing a massive debt crisis and President Obama has signaled, repeatedly, that he doesn’t want to cut spending enough to restore the creditworthiness of the United States.”
Watch our exclusive interview. Story continues below.
Miniter is out with a new book, “Leading From Behind – the Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him,” that includes the explosive charge that Obama passed up three chances to kill Osama bin Laden and had to be pushed into action by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Miniter argues that after the bruising 2008 primary fights, Clinton worked hard to gain the trust of Obama and win him over and get him to support a number of initiatives.
“Hillary Clinton was afraid that if we failed to get Bin Laden this would forever hang on our necks and if there’s another attack against Americans, either at home or an American base abroad or in an allied capital somewhere, that the administration would be held to account,” he said. “She knows very well that her husband Bill Clinton had 11 different chances to kill or capture Osama Bin Laden and failed to take them and she wasn’t going to let this happen again.”
Another example of leading from behind is Obamacare, or as Miniter would have it, Pelosicare. Miniter said that Obama “outsourced” his signature healthcare plan to then-Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.
“He really outsourced much of his administration in the first two years to Nancy Pelosi,” he said. “One of the things that is extraordinary in this investigation into Obama that I learned is he likes to delegate to strong women.
"It comes from his essentially being raised by his mother who acted like a single mother before she abandoned him in Hawaii in his early combustible teen years.
“But when he meets someone like Hillary Clinton or Nancy Pelosi who has a firm ideological agenda far to the left of the American mainstream and is a tough-minded leader as Nancy Pelosi is, he tends to defer.
"Even when he opposed certain maneuvers in what we know as Obamacare, Nancy Pelosi essentially overruled him and drove healthcare ever forward. … And Pelosi forced it through over Obama’s objections and Obama just sort of nodded and went along. It’s almost like he’s a president on autopilot.”
On other topics, Miniter:
- Said the current tensions between the United States and Israel are not typical but stem from Obama’s long association with anti-Israel and anti-American sources “for decades and seeking their approval.”
- Said senior advisor Valerie Jarrett is the biggest influence in the Obama presidency. “She’s not elected, she’s not confirmed by the United States Senate, she gives very few interviews, she’s a mysterious force but her force is felt throughout the entire administration.”
- When asked about Obama’s reluctance to hold news conferences while at the same time appearing on entertainment shows and giving interviews to celebrity magazines, quipped, “It’s hard to lead without a teleprompter if you’re Barack Hussein Obama.”
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