President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign commented for the first time Monday afternoon about a scandal concerning campaign donations that first broke at The Daily Beast, but the campaign offered no specifics about its social media fundraising system.
“We take great care to make sure that every one of our more than three million donors are eligible to donate and that our fundraising efforts fully comply with all U.S. laws and regulations,” Obama campaign spokesman Adam Fetcher told Peter Schweizer of the Government Accountability Institute and Peter Boyer of Newsweek. (RELATED: Obama campaign may have illegally solicited foreign donors via social media website)
“Campaign officials say they use multiple security tools to screen all online credit card contributions, and then review, by hand, those donations that are flagged by their automated system,” Schweizer and Boyer reported.
“Potentially improper donations, such as those originating from foreign internet addresses, are returned to any donors who cannot provide a copy of their current U.S. passport photo pages,” according to the Obama campaign.
But the Obama campaign ignored specific questions about its donations system, according to Slate.com’s Dave Weigel.
“Why do Obama donation appeals go out to non-Americans, anyway?” Weigel asked Monday afternoon. “And why isn’t the credit card protection stronger?”
“I’ve asked the campaign to clear this up and will update if they do,” Weigel wrote.
Obama campaign spokesman Ben LaBolt has not returned The Daily Caller’s request for comment about claims that the campaign solicited and received financial contributions from foreign nationals who are ineligible to donate under federal law.