In an Administration of Lying Incompetents, Jay Carney Manages to Distinguish Himself Yet Again

Baghdad Bob just emailed me to say "This kid has chops."

Confronted with the newly-released emails in which White House National Defense Fixer Ben Rhodes stated the most important goal (following reassuring the public that the president was devoted to protecting the American people and fundraising in Las Vegas) was...

To underscore that these protests are rooted in an Internet video, and not a broader failure of policy.

...Jay Carney insists that that goal refers to the protests in Cairo, not Benghazi. Or, as Carney says, it was about "the overall environment in the Muslim world."

Of course, there's also this quote from the Talking Points Q & A:

Q: What's your response to the Independent story [they mean the UK newspaper the Independent -- ace] that says we have intelligence 48 hours in advance of the Benghazi attack that was ignored? Was this an intelligence failure? We are not aware of any actionable intelligence indicating that an attack on the U.S. Mission in Benghazi was planned or imminent. The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US consulate and subsequently its annex.

Karl points out that Carney has repeatedly insisted from the White House spokesman podium that these claims came from the CIA, not the White House.

I don't understand Carney's response to this. He only says, basically, this has all been answered before.

He has no answer as to why the White House held this email back.

The White House's claim has been (for eighteen long months of lies) that whatever misrepresentations entered the talking points, and whatever truths departed from them (such as evidence that this was an Al Qaeda attack, that there had been previous attacks, that there had been previous warnings, etc.), it had nothing to do with the White House, as other people, not anyone in the White House, constructed the talking points.

Now comes this email from Ben Rhodes telling Ambassador Rice to go out there and sell the Internet Video cover story and so what does Jay Carney do?

He claims the talking points weren't about Benghazi.

Exit Quote: "If you look at the document in question, it is not about Benghazi."

Second Exit Quote: "The currently available information suggests that the demonstrations in Benghazi were spontaneously inspired by the protests at the US Embassy in Cairo and evolved into a direct assault against the US consulate and subsequently its annex."

Third Exit Quote: After a year and a half of vigorously insisting the White House had no input into these Talking Points -- that all information came from the CIA and FBI -- Carney now says "obviously" the White House had input into the Talking Points.

Fourth Exit Quote:

posted by Ace at 02:57 PM

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