Posted on 11/14/2013 11:23:07 AM PST by Kaslin
CBS journalist Major Garrett grilled Barack Obama at a White House news conference, Thursday. On the subject of ObamaCare's disastrous rollout, the reporter repeatedly zeroed in on what the President knew and when: "You said after the law was implemented or signed, if like your plan, you can keep it. Americans believed you, sir, when you said that to them over and over."[See video below. MP3 audio here.]
Garrett pushed, "Do you not believe, sir, the American people deserve a deeper, more transparent accountability from you as to why you said it over and over and when your own statistics, published in the Federal Register, alerted your policy staff, and I presume you, to the fact that millions of Americans would, in fact, probably fall into the very gap you are trying to administratively fix now?" The journalist wasn't done. He offered up two more hard-hitting queries.
CBS's Major Garrett Grills Obama on Breaking Promise to Americans: Where's the Accountability?
Garrett added, "You were informed or – several people in this building were informed two weeks before the launch of the website that it was failing the most basic tests internally. Yet, a decision was made to launch the website on October 1st. Did you, sir, make that test and if so, did you regret it?"
Obama professed ignorance:
OBAMA: On the website, I was not informed directly that the website would not be working the way it was supposed to. Had I been informed I wouldn't be going out saying "boy, this is going to be great." You know, I'm accused of a lot of things but I don't think that I'm stupid enough to go around saying this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity a week before the website open it is I thought it wasn't going to work.
Staying focused, Garrett demanded, "Did you decide, sir, that the simple declaration was something the American people could handle but this nuance was something they couldn't handle and didn't trust the American people with the fuller truth?"
A transcript of the questions and some of Obama's answers follow:
11/14/1312: 20
BARACK OBAMA: Major Garrett.
MAJOR GARRETT: Thank you, Mr. President. You said while the law was being debated, if you like your plan, you can keep it. You said after the law was implemented or signed, if like your plan, you can keep it. Americans believed you, sir, when you said that to them over and over. Do you not believe, sir, the American people deserve a deeper, more transparent accountability from you as to why you said it over and over and when your own statistics, published in the Federal Register, alerted your policy staff, and I presume you, to the fact that millions of Americans would, in fact, probably fall into the very gap you are trying to administratively fix now? That's one question. Second question. [Laughter in room.] You were informed or – several people in this building were informed two weeks before the launch of the website that it was failing the most basic tests internally. And yet, a decision was made to launch the website on October 1. Did you, sir, make that test and if so, did you regret it?
OBAMA: Okay. On the website, I was not informed directly that the website would not be working the way it was supposed to. Had I been informed I wouldn't be going out saying "boy, this is going to be great. You know, I'm accused of a lot of things but I don't think that I'm stupid enough to go around saying this is going to be like shopping on Amazon or Travelocity a week before the website open it is I thought it wasn't going to work.
...
GARRETT: Did you decide, sir, that the simple declaration was something the American people could handle but this nuance was something they couldn't handle and didn't trust the American people with the fuller truth?
OBAMA: No. I think, as I said earlier, major, Major, my expectation was that for 98 percent of the American people either it genuinely wouldn't change at all or they would be pleasantly surprised with the options in the marketplace.
I think he is that stupid and arrogant. What has he ever run with any success but his mouth.
Wow. He might get promoted to Colonel for this!
God Bless Majot Garett, never minds to ask the difficult questions.
This presidency is collapsing.
The million dollar question is, will the GOP take advantage of it?
More Clintonian Parsing from the First Slime-Ball.
If he "was not informed directly", was he informed indirectly?
Did he tell his subordinates not to inform him of problems so he had deniability?
Is he just plain lying again?
Or all three?
or they would be pleasantly surprised with the options in the marketplace.....and I couldn’t find these options on my own? Asshole.
There will be a republican effort to save Obama's ass donkey.
Especially in the Senate.
You wouldn't make the choices that they want you to make, so, no, you can't be allowed to make that choice.
Yes, this is how they think.
Yes.
So, what was the rest of the press pool doing during this interchange? Squirming in their seats?
That is a ten dollar question, because it’s easy to answer. No, the GOP will NOT take proper advantage of this.
If CBS, NBC, ABC, AP, etc had done their jobs back in 2008 (and at any time sine then) this Obamination would never have happened. Certainly there would not have been a second term. And, Reid, McConnell, Pelosi et al would be in retirement (or jail).
If that had not been a democrat up there it would have looked like the press meetings with Ronald Reagan after the Iran/Contra news broke.
I think the press still supports the progressive line.
But with Baraq firmly ensconced until Jan 2017, they can throw out some snarks and buff their “impartiality” cred occasionally.
I look for the next theme to be “Baraq’s ideas were great, but we need a seasoned manager like Hillary to carry it forward.”
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