InToday’s Gaggle, A Gaggler Catches Chimpy In Yet Another Lie
Q But, Tony, on March 14th, the President was in Mexico, he was at a press conference and said, “I’ve heard those allegations about political decision-making in this matter. It’s just not true.” How can that be true when now there are emails showing that the White House Political Director was involved in the firings? Wouldn’t that suggests politics —
MR. SNOW: No, the White House Political Director — I think if you take a look at the White House Political Director, these most recent emails I believe took place after the personnel action had taken place. And furthermore, look, you can assume that when you have political appointees, the Political Office is certainly going to have some conversations. And I believe that the emails you’re talking about involve Tim Griffin.
Q Okay. But you’re saying you would assume that politics would be involved because there’s a political — but at the beginning of this story —
MR. SNOW: No, no, no, I said the Political Office would have some knowledge of it.
Q Okay, but at the beginning of this story, the President, you, Dan Bartlett, others said on camera that politics was not involved, this was performance-based.
MR. SNOW: That is something — we have never said that. I think you’ll have to take a look at comments that have been made by the Justice Department. What we’ve said is that people serve at the pleasure of the President. That’s the operative principle here.
Q The President said, I’ve heard those allegations about political decision-making and it’s just not true. I mean, he clearly said politics was not involved, right?
MR. SNOW: Right.
Q So now politics was because the Political Director —
MR. SNOW: No. Just because the Political Director is weighing in on something does not mean that this is politics involved. These are political appointees.
Pony Make No Guarantees
Q You make a good point that these emails were in February, with Sarah Taylor. Can you say from that podium categorically that the White House Political Affairs Office was not involved back in November, October, leading up to the December decision?
MR. SNOW: I think what we’ve done is we’ve already released all the emails that are available, and you can draw whatever judgments —
Q From the Justice Department, but what about White House emails?
MR. SNOW: Yes, but the — those were Justice Department emails, including those that had come from the White House.
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