Free Republic

Jay Carney is forced to respond to RNC for using his false talking points on the country's debt (May 30, 2012).

The job of the White House Press Secretary is simple: to answer questions from the press* without actually answering them. To form aloud words that are assembled into sentences and then stacked up into paragraphs, giving the appearance of communication, but without communicating. When this job is done well, some listeners might even believe that a few real answers have been given.** And then there’s Jay Carney. Here he is, presumably having just given the boilerplate non-answer on Solyndra — it’s really no big deal because hey, come on, there are winners and there are losers and that’s just the...

Jay Carney said he never lies in his capacity as White House press secretary at a Friday scholarship lunch hosted by the White House Correspondents’ Association: JAY CARNEY: So I don’t have these moments of crisis very much. Credibility’s enormously important for press secretaries. All of the predecessors, my living predecessors, I spoke with all of them before I took this job. I knew all of them, already. Whether they served a Republican president or a Democratic one, they all talked about the need to maintain your credibility. Which means, when I go and stand up in front of the...

CBS News' Bill Plante to White House press secretary Jay Carney on the matter of President Obama's attack on the Supreme Court: "You're standing up there, twisting yourself in knots because he made a mistake and you can't admit it." Plante repeated himself after Carney accused him of righteous indignation.

<p>White House press secretary Jay Carney tells the press corps that President Obama's attack on the Supreme Court was misunderstood because he was speaking in "shorthand" since he is a former professor of law.</p> <p>Henry: The president is a former constitutional law professor. One of his professors is Laurence Tribe. He now says, in his words, the president “obviously misspoke earlier this week”, quote “he didn’t say what he meant and having said that in order to avoid misleading anyone, he had to clarify it.” I thought yesterday you were saying repeatedly that he did not misspeak. What do you make of the president’s former law professor saying he did?</p>

CBS News reporter Bill Plante challenged White House press secretary Jay Carney on President Obama’s statement Monday that for the Supreme Court to overturn the Affordable Care Act would be an “extraordinary, unprecedented step,” during a Thursday press briefing. BILL PLANTE: What he said on Monday was an obvious misspoken moment because he talked about the court not being in a position to overturn an of Congress— JAY CARNEY: Bill— PLANTE: You’re standing up there twisting yourself in knots, because he made a mistake and you can’t admit it. CARNEY: No, no, Bill, I am acknowledging that—you’re sharing in the...

Carney: Obama remark about Supreme Court was misunderstood By Jonathan Easley - 04/04/12 04:25 PM ET In an occasionally testy exchange with reporters, White House press secretary Jay Carney defended President Obama’s remark that it would be “unprecedented” for the Supreme Court to overturn the administration’s healthcare law, saying the comment had been misunderstood. Speaking at a Rose Garden news conference on Monday, Obama weighed in on the matter for the first time since last week’s high court hearings that left many Democrats fearful that the five conservative judges would band together to strike down his signature domestic achievement. “Ultimately,...

What a great question from Ed Henry, especially with all the big hoopla Obama is making about ‘record profits’ of oil companies because of higher gas prices. In 2005 Senator Obama voted for an energy bill that included, according to Henry, over 2 billion in tax cuts to the oil industry when Henry says at that time they were making a lot of money too. Carney can’t answer it:

White House spokesman Jay Carney carefully deflected Vice President Joe Biden’s Monday night declaration that the successful raid on Osama bin Laden’s hideout was the most audacious military strike in 500 years. “He meant the decision the president made… was a very difficult one,” said Carney, when asked about Biden’s gaffe. “When you’re president, you have to make the tough decisions.” Carney kept a straight face amid laughter from journalists attending the press conference. But Carney stepped back when asked if the bin Laden raid was more audacious that the D-Day landings on the Nazi-held Normandy coast in June 1944....

Reporter: Friday, I believe, is the anniversary of the healthcare law and I'm wondering if we should expect to hear from the President on that milestone which of course is right before the Supreme Court arguments or would he just assume that not making a public statement about the healthcare law and let outside groups, the campaign and others, do the politicking around this law? Carney: The President is focused on doing everything he can with Congress and independently to help our economy grow and create jobs, to build an economy that is built to last and to make sure...

White House spokesman Jay Carney on Thursday dismissed calls for a reconsideration of President Barack Obama’s controversial regulation of the health care policies offered by religious organizations, one day after Catholic leaders repeated their offer to hash out an agreement. “The solution that was reached here … has been reached, and we firmly believe that it achieves the goals that the president set,” Carney said at Thursday’s White House press conference. On Feb. 10 Obama announced a new regulation that forces religious groups to financially support activities they abhor, but that the government supports. In particular, the president directed religious

Jay Carney, White House: It seems even talking about alternative energy sources is funny and I think calling them flat-earthers is appropriate. Mark Knoller, CBS News: "Isn't that a campaign message?" Carney: "No! It's a policy message. We believe we have to do this for the sake of America's economic future. It is simply not an option to say that we can keep drilling with two-percent of the known oil reserves in the world when we consume 20-percent of the world's oil. I was a mediocre math student, but that doesn't seem to work out.

The White House press secretary told members of the press pool aboard Air Force One today that President Obama’s “sincere” apology to Afghan President Hamid Karzai for a Koran-burning incident “is not appropriate to show” to reporters. Jay Carney spoke with reporters for about 20 minutes as the presidential entourage flew to Florida for a speech on energy at the University of Miami. Obama’s letter to Karzai that included the apology was “a lengthy, three-page letter on a host of issues, several sentences of which relate to this matter,” according to the travel pool report. “The president, following up on...

ABC News and George Stephanopoulos have a credibility problem with conservatives and Middle America. And it seems to be getting worse. It’s not just that ABC News hired Bill Clinton’s White House spokesman and counselor George Stephanopoulos as a journalist; it’s that the pack mentality at ABC News doesn’t see it as a problem. “The planning meetings [at ABC News] have little political diversity. Everyone is left of center and at ease with their liberal ideals. The other viewpoint is rarely raised and never fully represented,” a current ABC News producer told me last week. ,,,,, But the bias at...

I’m sure in his feeble mind this makes sense. (NewsOK) — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney explained that the number of people dropping out of the work force, which artificially depresses the unemployment rate, can be regarded as an “economic positive.” “A lot of that is due to younger people getting more of an education, which is an economic positive,” Carney said. He had been asked what would happen when people “inevitably” raise the unemployment rating with their return to the work force.

White House press secretary Jay Carney dodges when asked for the administration's response to the news that nearly 400 people at the Occupy Oakland encampment were arrested over the weekend. "What is your reaction, is the administration concerned that some of these protesters are taking things too far?," a reporter asked during his Monday briefing. "With regards to Oakland, that's obviously a local law enforcement matter," Carney said. "Here in Washington I would refer you for specifics to the U.S. National Park Services and U.S. Park Police. And our position has been and continues to be that we need to...

Carney: Obama sees ‘regrettable level of hyperpartisanship’ in WashingtonBy Amie Parnes - 01/23/12 01:03 PM ET Even though he promised to bridge partisanship before coming into office, President Obama “accepts that there is still a regrettable level of hyperpartisanship,” White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Monday. Carney said there were “instances” in which the tone on Pennsylvania Avenue “got in the way of moving forward.” “But that's not an excuse to stop trying,” Carney said. The spokesman said Obama believes there's still an opportunity to work with Congress to accomplish “big things.” Carney used an example of the GOP's...

During a White House press briefing on Monday, Fox News’ Ed Henry asked Press Secretary Jay Carney if the White House displays a portrait of Saul Alinsky for its staff to look up to. Carney’s answer was less than direct, and would seem to hint that there just might be something to the Alinsky portrait rumors. “I wonder if you could clear something up,” Henry began. “Newt Gingrich keeps saying on the campaign trail that the President’s vision comes from Saul Alinsky, the community organizer. I haven’t heard you asked about him but… Is there some kind of portrait of...

Carney downplays friction as cause of Chief of Staff Daley's resignationBy Amie Parnes - 01/10/12 12:52 PM ET White House press secretary Jay Carney told reporters to take William Daley's decision to resign "at face value" despite news reports that suggest that the departing chief of staff felt marginalized in recent months. Daley, who is leaving the White House at the end of the month, said he wanted to spend more time with his family in Chicago. "These jobs are tough," Carney said, comparing time at the White House to dog years. Carney credited Daley for helping President Obama navigate...

The White House’s relationship with the reporters who cover it has blown hot and cold throughout history. And this year, some reporters say, things have taken a decidedly frosty turn. When a reporter gets something wrong or is perceived as being too aggressive, the response is often swift and sometimes at top volume, reporters say. “They shoot first and ask questions later,” said Julie Mason, who has reported on the George W. Bush and Obama White Houses for the Houston Chronicle, the Washington Examiner and Politico. In one of the e-mails that reporters have dubbed “nastygrams,” White House press secretary...

Here‘s a line of questioning you don’t hear everyday, let alone it being asked of a White House Press Secretary in reference to the Commander in Chief. During what otherwise would have been a typical White House press briefing Monday, Jay Carney fielded a real curve ball from World Net Daily reporter Lester Kinsolving, a man known for asking outlandish questions. The topic? Whether President Obama approves of bestiality in the military. Kinsolving was referring to a recent Senate vote repealing sodomy and bestiality bans in the military. The odd, if not uproarious exchange went something like this: KINSOLVING: The...

ABC News' Jake Tapper confronts White House press secretary Jay Carney over President Obama's schedule which has included a lot of traveling. Citing a Wall Street Journal article about the number of times President Obama has traveled to swing-states, Tapper bluntly asks Carney if Obama is "campaigning on taxpayer dime." "President Obama seems to travel to battleground states more so than any other president before him. Am I'm wondering if you could respond to this. It looks like the president is campaigning on the taxpayer dime more than any other president has done," Tapper said at today's White House briefing.

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said President Barack Obama will “continue” to act “administratively” without congressional authorization to “benefit the American people” as part of the White House’s “We Can’t Wait” campaign. “He [Obama] fully understands that the kinds of things that are contained within the American Jobs Act require congressional action, require laws being passed, and that’s why he’s pressing for Congress to take action legislatively,” Carney told reporters on Monday at the White House.

More evidence that Obama’s jobs plan isn’t resonating as much more than a reelection effort. As Greg Hengler at Townhall.com asks, what do you do when even your fans laugh at you?

In the hours since the Jimmy Hoffa Voter Encouragement Crisis/Incendiary Rhetorapocalypse, conservative media figures have looked to the White House to provide some becalming wisdom to a shaken nation. At Tuesday’s White House briefing, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked Press Secretary Jay Carney how Hoffa’s comments fit with the President’s post-Tucson remarks in January. (Snip) Tapper began by reading President Obama’s January quote, then asked, “Did he mean that?”

(snip) Almost every presidential-election cycle, the spotlight illumines a campaign guru whose tactical acumen seemingly propels his client to heights unreachable alone. For Republicans, Karl Rove – “Bush’s Brain” – occupied that position during George W. Bush’s White House years; James Carville was the Democrats‘ man with a campaign plan during the Bill Clinton years. For 2012, Carney is stepping into that role, as his client soars in the early polls and as he gets credit for a strategic innovation he put into place for Perry’s 2006 gubernatorial race and may be adapting for Perry’s presidential quest. The state’s longest-serving...

President Obama plans to lay out his long-awaited jobs speech before a joint session of Congress next Wednesday evening -- which happens to be the same night of a Republican presidential debate. "I respectfully request the opportunity to address a joint session of Congress on Sept. 7, 2011 at 8 p.m.," Obama wrote in a letter sent Wednesday to House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney says the timing of the speech is not aimed at overshadowing the next Republican debate, which is cosponsored by NBC News and Politico,...

Obama arrived in Minnesota earlier today. "I am very pleased to be out of Washington," he said. White House press secretary Jay Carney bridled at the notion that the three-day bus tour, which traverses three battleground states Obama won in 2008, had anything to do with the fact that he’s struggling to maintain support in those states ahead of the 2012 contest. Carney said it was ridiculous to suggest that “anytime the president leaves Washington, it’s campaigning,” and that Obama was “doing what presidents do, going out into the country.”

Jay Carney, meet Jay Carney.In 2001, the then-Time magazine reporter wrote a snarky piece criticizing President George W. Bush's month-long vacation that was billed as a "Home to the Heartland" tour. But almost exactly 10 years later Carney, now the Obama White House's press secretary, is defending President Barack Obama's Midwest job-creation tour and vacation at Martha's Vineyard."I don't think Americans out there would begrudge that notion that the President would spend some time with his family," claimed Carney at a recent press briefing.But that's exactly what he, as a private citizen working for Time,

"I understand why extending unemployment insurance provides relief to people who need it, but how does that create jobs," Wall Street Journal's Laura Meckler asked Jay Carney at Wednesday's WH briefing. Carney responded: "Oh, uh, it is by, uh, I would expect a reporter from the Wall Street Journal would know this as part of the entrance exam." "There are few other ways that can directly put money into the economy than applying unemployment insurance," Carney said. Carney answers the question: "It is one of the most direct ways to infuse money directly into the economy because people who are...

Short term unemployment benefits provide people financial resources while the look for a new job. Extending unemployment benefits to 18 months or longer only encourages people to take their time looking for that new job. They do not create jobs. This is the liberal concept that spending money can be equated with job creation. If that theory worked, the Stimulus would have kept unemployment under 8% as promised. We all know how that worked out. (RCP) — “I understand why extending unemployment insurance provides relief to people who need it, but how does that create jobs,” Wall Street Journal’s Laura...

When the coffins of the fallen Navy SEALS came back to US soil, the Pentagon and the White House closed the event to the press.That's understandable. After all, the Bush administration made similar restrictions for such ceremonies, although Obama overturned the policy.The press complied as well, but when the White House released a photo yesterday of President Obama saluting the coffins at the ceremony, they raised their eyebrows.When Associated Press reporter Ben Feller asked about the photo today at the White House Press briefing, Carney answered:

ABC News’ Jake Tapper does a gorgeous job of getting Press Secretary Jay Carney to admit that the President, despite his renewed protestations of “laser-like focus” on jobs, really isn’t doing all that much. As usual. [video] Wouldn’t it have been nice to see this level of interest by reporters way back in 2007 and 2008?

White House on worst market drop since 2008: ‘Markets go up and down’ 1 hr 5 mins ago The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped by 512 points Thursday, erasing this year’s market gains, but the White House had little to say besides “markets go up and down.” “I don’t have a specific reaction to the market. Markets go up and down,” White House press secretary Jay Carney said. “There is no question that we have — this economy has faced headwinds this year, a variety of them including the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the increase in oil prices, energy...

With stocks plunging on Wall Street, tensions were rising in today’s White House press briefing as ABC’s Jake Tapper relentlessly demanded Press Secretary Jay Carney explain exactly what it is that President Obama is doing to help create new jobs. When Carney suggested Obama is urging Congress to pass legislation, Tapper got agitated and responded, “so the same stuff he was doing a couple months ago, calling on Congress to pass things?”Critics of Obama will no doubt applaud Tapper’s efforts here, yet even supporters of the President can’t fault Tapper for forcefully demanding answers.

Question from Reporter #1: "You mentioned the word bipartisan. How does it promote an atmosphere of bipartisanship for the President to encourage citizens to call recalcitrant lawmakers and to use his campaign apparatus to tweet out the Twitter handles of Republicans to encourage them to encourage people to sort of jump all over folks to get them to vote? I mean, does that foster a sense of cooperation?" Jay Carney, White House press secretary: "What the President has called for is for those Americans who believe that we need compromise in Washington to communicate that to their members of Congress....

What President Barack Hussein Obama’s press secretary, Jay Carney, by how he is talking, it sure sounds like the Obama White House and the Democrats are getting desperate. It is a sure sign that the Democrats with President Obama are on “the ropes”. The is should come as no surprise because it is a sign that the American people are starting to scream out to the White House, Senate, and House that ENOUGH is ENOUGH. What start with many tea party movement protests going back to early 2009, has come to this late week and the efforts to resolve the...

After bobbing-and-weaving for nine minutes, Carney finally says what everybody knows: the president won’t put his plan on paper because he doesn’t want it to become “politically charged” before a compromise can be reached. In other words, you’ve got to pass it to find out what’s in it:

After a long back-and-forth between Ed Henry, FOX News' White House correspondent and press secretary Jay Carney about President Obama's lack of a public plan, Carney told Henry to tell his viewers everything will be okay: Ed Henry, FOX News: "But over the weekend, Democrats were saying there's going to be a drop if there is no action. Asian markets are going to crash on Sunday. It didn't happen. American markets didn't crash on Monday, hopefully they haven't crashed -- why should people believe ..."Jay Carney, WH press secretary: "You should go on the air and tell your viewers there...

White House Press Secretary Jay Carney: "Well, two things remain uncontestably true. The economy is vastly improved from what it was when Barack Obama was sworn into office as president. We were in economic free-fall. There were predictions that we were headed to the second Great Depression. We were losing up to, over 700,000 jobs a month, we were contracting at greater than 6 percent -- our economy was. So, the economy has improved. It has not improved enough. "Well, there's no question that we face headwinds, and the president has been very direct about that. And we need to...

White House spokesman Jay Carney today argued that President Barack Obama is a better leader for not proposing a debt-ceiling plan that can be debated and voted on by elected legislators in the House of Representatives. “Leadership is not proposing a plan for the sake of having it voted up or down, and likely voted down,” he told ABC News’ Jake Tapper, who has spent a week fruitlessly pressing Carney to detail the administration’s budget proposals. Since the start of the debt-ceiling negotiations, the president has refused to develop a detailed plan that could be measured or criticized by voters,...

The White House says an off-color remark about President Barack Obama by MSNBC analyst Mark Halperin was inappropriate. Halperin said during an appearance Thursday on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" that he thought Obama "was a dick yesterday." The Time magazine editor at large was talking about Obama's performance at a White House news conference on Wednesday. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the comment was an inappropriate thing to say about any president.

It seems as if that is the case, given that John McCain has chastised those GOP presidential candidates who wonder how Libya posed a threat to the U.S., how Obama has grounds for claiming that the U.S. isn't even at war with Libya or how he can claim - through Harold Koh and Jay Carney - that "the limited nature of this particular mission is not the kind of hostilities envisioned by the War Powers Resolution." Obama is claiming that since U.S. troops are supposedly at little risk in this particular mission and that we have no boots on the...

...With Harold Koh (legal advisor for the Department of State) and Jay Carney in tow - engaged in a game of semantics. Harold Koh recently said: "We are not saying the president can take the country into war on his own. We are not saying the War Powers Resolution is unconstitutional or should be scrapped or that we can refuse to consult Congress. We are saying the limited nature of this particular mission is not the kind of hostilities envisioned by the War Powers Resolution." Problem is, is that the WPA does not make any distinction between one kind of...

On March 21, 2011, Obama cited the WPR which requires him to notify Congresa 48 hours before beginning military operations. That same day Obama said that the military strikes against Libya would be "limited in their nature, duration and scope." During the past almost 90 days, Obama has given updates on these "limited" strikes. Now that 90 days draws near, Carney says that since the strikes have been "limited" that basically the 90 day rule doesn't apply. He apparently wants to use a WPA provision which allows for the president to deploy U.S. forces and engage in military strikes for...

QUESTION TIME -- WATCH LIVE: White House press secretary Jay Carney is set to brief reporters shortly. Here's what we'd we like to ask him: Is the president hopeful for his Israeli-Palestinian plan even after Benjamin Netanyahu expressed doubt over it? How did the president plan to approach that subject with Netanyahu today? Did the president have any reaction to the news that Tim Pawlenty will run for president? When does the vice president plan on resuming debt ceiling talks with Republicans?

"It's an unfortunate distraction from the issues that I think most Americans care about," White House press secretary Jay Carney said about the controversy surrounding President Obama's long-form birth certificate.

Jay Carney lamented Tuesday that the conspiracy theory about President Obama’s birth is getting “serious attention” while more important matters are getting overlooked. CNN’s Ed Henry asked the White House press secretary to react to Donald Trump’s seemingly constant presence on TV, in which the real estate mogul has stoked the myth that Obama wasn’t born in Hawaii. In response, Carney said that CNN itself had reported a “highly credible piece on an established fact” — that “the president was born in the United States of America.” “This was a settled issue,” Carney said, calling it “unfortunate” that “for whatever...

White House press secretary Jay Carney was asked today why President Obama did not give a statement on Easter. He laughed it off. Barack Obama released statements for the Muslims holidays of Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, the Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha last year. Just last month he released a statement for the Persian Nowruz holiday. The Hill has more: Carney also scoffed at media reports calling out the White House for not releasing a statement commemorating Easter on Sunday, explaining Obama and his family attended church services in Washington. “The president went to church yesterday, it was well-covered. I’m not sure if we...

The "transparency" in the Obama administration means sometimes a question can't even get asked. The discovery came today at the daily White House news briefing with press secretary Jay Carney, who responded to a request to be allowed to ask about the president's positions: "I'm not going to take your questions." Ironically, Les Kinsolving, WND's correspondent at the White House and the No. 2 reporter on the White House beat, had wanted to ask about Obama's openness. "In the Washington Post, the president of the Society of Professional Journalists wrote of the Obama administration, 'Reporters' questions often go unanswered. When...