Obama Scandals? President Has Plausible Deniability! — Jay Carney Says So.
On a warm July night, three men sat around a table enjoying crisp, cool beers. The same scene was probably playing out on backyard patios across the country at that very moment. Only this was “the people’s” backyard. And one of the men was President Obama.
The Beer Summit was a result of President Obama’s swift judgment of the Cambridge Police. It’s interesting that a mere week after the incident (and one that had nothing to do with the President or national security matters) he was able to formulate an opinion. Let’s face it, saying the police “acted stupidly” in the same sentence you admit you don’t have all the facts is, well, stupid.
I guess President Obama learned his lesson.
At Tuesday’s press briefing, Jay Carney made that abundantly clear. Not once but many times he reiterated that the president was reserving judgment on just about every scandal they find themselves embroiled in. Mostly because he had no idea they were even happening.
When asked about the President’s thoughts on the IRS scandal:
Well, those from the IRS who have spoken about this obviously have much greater insight into what took place than we do. We have to — we have not seen the report. We have not independently collected information about what transpired. We need the independent Inspector General’s report to be released before we can make judgments.
But Jay, shouldn’t the White House have known this was going on?
Now, before I make judgments about, or anyone else here makes judgments about, whether the White House should have known more or others in the administration should have known more, we have to find out what exactly happened. And that’s why it’s important for us to wait for the release of the Inspector General’s report, which will hopefully be fairly imminent.
Regarding the AP phone records grab, Jay reminds us that the President was only protecting the American people from potential security leaks. You know, if he actually knew about the records grab. Which he didn’t. Really. And why would he? He’s just the President. He can’t just call Eric Holder and ask him. (Stop laughing, I’m serious).
Enormous — a great deal prevents the President from doing that. It would be wholly inappropriate for the President to involve himself in a criminal investigation that, as Jessica points out, at least as reported, involves leaks of information from the administration. I mean, imagine the story on Fox if that were to happen. So that’s why.
