I have often thought that being the Press Secretary for President Barack Obama has to be one of the most difficult jobs in the world. I remember Robert Gibbs trying desperately to explain why black is actually white and up is actually down. Perhaps his most famous effort was in explaining why President Obama thought being on The View with Whoopi Goldberg trumped meeting with world leaders.
One gets the sense that Gibbs just got tired of having to do this on a daily basis. I can remember watching him many times and wondering how he could give some of those answers with a straight face. Following is the definition of a “Robert Gibbs” in the urban dictionary:
| A rhetorical defense strategy when you are questioned on something you have no idea on, and you reply with “I am not an expert in “blank” field . Commonly used by White House press secretary Robert Gibbs. Student 1: What did the housing bubble have to do with the recent economic meltdown.Economics Professor: Well listen im not a futures speculator or real estate tycoon, but trust me houses and stuff were important to the economy.Student 1: Professor with all due respect that was a Robert Gibbs explanation/answer. | |||
Robert Gibbs left the White House in February, 2011 and was replaced as Press Secretary by Jay Carney. Jay Carney has had a rocky ride, to say the least. Now the Benghazi scandal creates a serious problem for Carney. When the Press Secretary speaks, there is almost always a camera there to record what is said. Here is what he said on November 28, 2012:
Ambassador Rice was using unclassified talking points that were developed by the intelligence community and provided not just to her, not just to the executive branch, but to the legislative branch. And they represented the best assessment by our intelligence professionals about what had happened in Benghazi at that time. And that is not just me saying so; that is what the DNI and the CIA have said.
This was patently untrue. The CIA had reported, in writing, that this was clearly a terrorist attack and they never mentioned the video and there was no mention of a demonstration.
The White House and the State Department have made clear that the single adjustment that was made to those talking points by either of those two — of these two institutions were changing the word “consulate” to “diplomatic facility,” because “consulate” was inaccurate. Those talking points originated from the intelligence community. They reflect the IC’s best assessments of what they thought had happened.
This is a bald-faced lie. We now know that the CIA talking points were heavily redacted, up to 12 times, at the request of the State Department and the White House.
We have to get our facts straight when we’re talking about this story, okay? There was basic information developed by the intelligence community that was provided to Ambassador Rice, to Capitol Hill, to me and others. We used that to describe what we understood to be known at the time in the immediate aftermath of Benghazi. As we learned more information, we made it available. That’s the long and short of it.
The problem was not a shortage of information. They knew this was a terrorist attack and they knew who was claiming responsibility. They chose to put forth a story for which there was no evidence and falsely represented it as the consensus of the Intelligence community.
That November Press conference may prove to be extremely damaging to the Obama administration and specifically to Jay Carney. We now have indisputable evidence that this was a bald-faced lie. Almost everything that Jay Carney said about the talking points during this press conference was a lie.
At some point a report is going to ask Jay Carney a direct question:
Why did you lie to us on November 28, 2012? Did you decide to tell this lie on your own, or were you instructed to tell this lie? Who, specifically, told you that the only revision to the talking points was the changing the word consulate to diplomatic facility.
How could he possibly answer this question? The best he can say is that he was just repeating what he was told. At that point, there are going to be loud demands to know who told him this. Is he going to say that he knew the truth, but lied anyway, because he thought that was the right thing to do? Or is he going to say that he knew the truth, but he was told to lie?
Carney is in the ultimate lose-lose situation. There is no chance that he will survive as Press Secretary. He has told one too many lies. Some news reporter is already preparing videos where he or she will play Jay Carney’s words on November 28, 2012 and his words now. It will be a non-survivable event.
His last press conference was a disaster and future press conferences will be much worse. There are a lot of people in the main stream media who will spin furiously to protect this President and/or Hillary Clinton. But there are not a lot of people who will tolerate bald-faced lies. Even these left wing liberal wackos have a limit.
This story is ratcheting up too fast and heads are going to roll. You can bet on Jay Carney being near the top of the expendable list. Somewhere, Robert Gibbs is down on his knees thanking God he is no longer Press Secretary for this President.
TDM
Please add me to your list; I always knew you were smarter than the average bear and enjoy your blogs;