GOP congressman offers strange Obama conspiracy theory -- and even stranger explanations [View all]

[DonViejo]

By Aaron Blake March 11 at 9:28 AM

Rep. Mike Kelly (R-Pa.) took the White House's “deep state” conspiracy theory and added some mustard to it in a newly uncovered speech last week. Kelly said that not only is there a widespread government effort to undermine President Trump, but that it's being led by none other than former president Barack Obama — who is running a “shadow government.” But while the conspiracy theory is strange enough, the explanations offered by Kelly's office are something to behold.

First, here's what Kelly said last Saturday at a local Republican Party Lincoln Day dinner:

President Obama himself said he was going to stay in Washington until his daughter graduated. I think we ought to pitch in to let him go someplace else, because he is only there for one purpose and one purpose only, and that is to run a shadow government that is going to totally upset the new agenda. It just doesn’t make sense. And people sit back and they say to me, 'My gosh, why can’t you guys get this done?' I say, 'We've got a new CEO, we've got some new heads in the different departments, but the same people are there, and they don't believe that the new owners or the new managers should be running the ship.'

Reached by the Philadelphia Inquirer, Kelly's office insisted the comments were supposed to be private and that he was merely reflecting Republicans' frustration with the deep state. “Rep. Kelly delivered his remarks at a private meeting to an audience of fellow Republicans. He was sharing the frustration of everyone in the room over how they believe certain Obama administration holdovers within the federal bureaucracy are attempting to upset President Trump’s agenda.”

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