Obama: $400M Iran Payment 'Wasn't Some Nefarious Deal'

[DonViejo]

Source: Talking Points Memo

In a press conference Thursday afternoon, President Barack Obama dismissed the recent furor over a $400 million payment from the United States to Iran, saying that the settlement "wasn't a secret" and affirming that the country doesn't pay ransom for hostages.

"Some of you may recall we announced these payments in January, many months ago," Obama said. "This wasn't some nefarious deal."

The payment was part of a settlement for a failed, decades-old arms deal, one of a "number of issues" that Obama said was resolved during the negotiation of the Iran nuclear deal. The payment stoked outrage Wednesday as Fox News played footage that showed American hostages arriving in Geneva in January, although Republican nominee Donald Trump seemed to think the footage was taken in Iran, according to The Washington Post.

"It was the assessment of our lawyers that we were now at a point where there was a significant litigation risk and we could end up costing ourselves billions of dollars," the President said. "It was their advice and suggestion that we settle, and that's what these payments represent."

-snip-

Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-iran-payment-not-some-nefarious-deal

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Obama Takes Down Trump's Claim Of Rigged Election: 'That's Ridiculous'

Donald Trump has begun warning that the November election will be "rigged" as his numbers collapses in national polls. President Barack Obama said Thursday during a press conference that Trump doesn't know what he is talking about.

"What does that mean?" Obama said. "The federal government doesn't run the election process. States and cities and communities all across the country, they are the ones who set up the voting systems and the voting booths. And if Mr. Trump is suggesting that there is a conspiracy theory that is being propagated, across the country, included in places like Texas, where typically it's not Democrats who are in charge of voting booths, that's ridiculous."

Obama did say that he took cyber attacks on America's voting system and any attempt to intervene in the voting process seriously, but that assuming an election is going to be "rigged" is wrong.

"If we see signs that a voting machine or a system is vulnerable it hacking, then we inform those local authority who are running the elections that they need to be careful. If we see jurisdictions that are violating federal laws, in terms of equal access and aren't providing ramps for disabled voters, or are discriminating in some fashion or are otherwise violating civil rights laws, then the Justice Department will come in and take care of that," Obama said. "But this will be an election like every other election. And I think all of us at some points in our lives have played sports or maybe just played in a school yard or sand box and sometimes folks if they lose, they complain they got cheated. "

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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/obama-assures-us-our-election-is-not-going-to-be-rigged-as-trump-says

[MidwestTech]

1. how much do you want to bet this 'secret data' was a plant to test drumpf

and BOY did he fail.
if he can't keep his fat mouth shut on a relatively unimportant thing like this...

[humbled_opinion]

2. Well one of the hostages

has told the media that they waited until other plane arrived (suspect this plane was money) so the optics are terrible in this. This story won't go away, Trump making it about Politicians weaving webs of lies to cover themselves. Should be interesting how it plays out.