Citizens United President David Bossie charged in an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV that President Barack Obama’s disdain of super PACs is hypocritical because the president accepts money from them and supports unions whose members have no say where their money goes.
In 2010, Citizens United successfully sued the Federal Election Commission, and in a landmark decision the Supreme Court ruled that government can’t limit the amount of money corporations and unions spend on political issues. Bossie’s group just released its newest documentary production called “The Hope and the Change.”
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Despite criticism that super PACs are ruining elections, Bossie believes that they serve an important purpose in keeping the electorate informed.
“We went to the United States Supreme Court to fight for our First Amendment right to be able to make documentary films and put them on television and advertise them, which was a criminal violation of the law of McCain-Feingold,” he said. “So we went to court to fight for that right and it was the Supreme Court who ruled in the much broader fashion than we even had envisioned. Did I hope that we would dismantle large portions of McCain-Feingold with our suit? Absolutely. Am I glad that Super PACs now exist? Absolutely. They exist on both sides of the aisle. They exist on the left and on the right.”
“I believe that the American people are fundamentally, incredibly smart and make good decisions and I’m a believer in more information to the public, not less,” he continued. “And that’s one of the things about our case is. For me, I don’t agree with Michael Moore but I believe in his right to make his left-leaning films. So I really have a problem with people who want to censor speech or not have speech. I believe that when I find somebody I don’t agree with what they say, the answer is more speech, not stifling those I disagree with.”
Reacting to former President Jimmy Carter’s speech in which he said America has one of the worst election processes in the world because of an excessive influx of money, Bossie said, “I really don’t put much stock in anything President Carter ever said, let alone what he thinks of the United States Supreme Court’s decision. Jimmy Carter created enormous parts of the current problem that we face today in the Middle East.”
“For him to spout off on anything related to foreign policy or the price of gas, let alone free speech rights, is laughable. He’s a stooge. He’s a left-wing hack at this point who was out there on his last breath trying to stay relevant and he’s not,” he said.
Bossie agreed that Obama’s campaign is hypocritical when it says elections are being bought but at the same time it bypasses a voluntary publicly-financed election.
“Barack Obama and his ilk have, for two years, since my Supreme Court victory, attacked super PACs at the same time that they support the unions,” Bossie said. “The unions have been doing this with unfettered access to their memberships’ money, to their union dues, hardworking Americans’ union dues. But they don’t get to participate in where that money goes. So, they support the unions, and have for decades.”
“Of course, this case, in essence, levels the playing field for conservatives and so they, of course, want to cry their crocodile tears. I don’t feel badly for them,” he continued. “Barack Obama says he hates super PACs, super PACs are a detriment to democracy one day. And then on the next day, he’s trying to raise money for his Super PAC.”
He continued, “Look, it’s like Bill Maher. You know, a comic who takes himself way too seriously and runs a comedy show that he pretends his news. He’s laughable to me because for years he attacks super PACs, he attacks the very notion of free speech rights but then he writes a $1 million check to Barack Obama’s super PAC. It’s ridiculous. It’s par for the course for the left. They completely say one thing and they do another.”
Bossie said, “It’s okay, though, because conservatives can win the debates. Conservatives win arguments when the American people have all of the information. Just like in 2010 . . . [in] 2010 the American people had a lot more information because of our Supreme Court ruling and, therefore, they made good decisions. I hope that that will be the case again in 2012.”
Bossie said his film, which took a year to make, shows the disappointment that Democrats and independents feel about Obama.
“I hired Pat Caddell and Kendra Stewart — two Democrat strategists and pollsters — to help me find the cast for the film along with Steve Bannon, our writer,” said Bossie. “[We] put together this film to really focus only on Democrats and independents who had voted for Barack Obama in 2008.”
He added that the film reveals what he described as “their story arcs of disappointment” in other words why they don’t feel the president deserves another term.
“We went and did focus groups across the country in battleground states and the only way you could be in the focus group is if you were a registered Democrat or registered independent and then voted for Barack Obama in 2008,” he said, noting that the initial pool of potential voters numbered in the thousands.
“So from that we whittled it down from thousands to hundreds to the 40 people who ended up being in the film from seven battleground states,” he explained. “And we feel it is an incredibly powerful film. These people supported Barack Obama. They felt that they were invested in him and so we really hit a chord with these people because we felt that these are the stories that the American people need to hear between now and Election Day in order for them to have as much information as possible to make a good decision.”
“The Hope and the Change” and is being shown on six cables networks across the country as well as five broadcast stations in different cities, according to Bossie. “We’re really excited. This is the first time in American history that we were able to put a political film on television. So we’re really excited about that,” he said.
“I urge people to go to thehopeandthechange.com and they can go to the ‘Watch it on TV’ button and you could find it, hopefully, in your area.”
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