Yesterday, Robert Gibbs refused to answer any questions about President Obama breaking his C-SPAN promise. His pretext for refusing was that he had already answered that question on Tuesday. Video here.
You can judge how truthful Gibbs’s claim is for yourself. Here’s his “answer” from Tuesday:
Q A question on health care. CSPAN television is requesting leaders in Congress to open up the debate to their cameras, and I know this is something that the President talked about on the campaign trail. Is this something that he supports, will be pushing for?
MR. GIBBS: I have not seen that letter. I know the President is going to begin some discussions later today on health care in order to try to iron out the differences that remain between the House and the Senate bill and try to get something hopefully to his desk quite quickly.
“I have not seen that letter.” That’s all the answer we get. And by the way, if Gibbs hasn’t seen the letter, it’s because he doesn’t want to.
Actually, that’s not the entire discussion from Tuesday, because the press didn’t let it go so easily:
Q Okay, just lastly, why can’t you answer the C-SPAN question —
MR. GIBBS: I did.
Q Well, you didn’t, because you said —
MR. GIBBS: I said I hadn’t seen the letter, which I haven’t —
Q Why do you need to see a letter? I mean, this is something the President said during the campaign and he talked about he wants everything open on C-SPAN —
MR. GIBBS: Dan asked me about the letter and I haven’t read the letter.
Q Well, I’ll just ask you about having it on C-SPAN —
MR. GIBBS: I answered Dan’s question and I answered this before we left for the break, Keith. The President’s number-one priority is getting the differences worked out, getting a bill to the House and the Senate. We’ve filled your newspaper and many others with the back-and-forth and the details of what’s in these bills. I don’t want to keep that from continuing to happen. I don’t think there’s anybody that would say that we haven’t had a thorough, robust, now spanning two calendar years’ debate on health care.
Q There are a lot of reasons not to do it on C-SPAN — people could showboat. Does he regret making that statement during the campaign?
MR. GIBBS: No.
I find it a little amazing that Gibbs can do this with a straight face. Telling a lie when your audience doesn’t know the truth is one thing. But this guy says “I answered Dan’s question” despite the fact that everyone was there only a few minutes earlier when he refused to answer Dan’s question.
(Via Instapundit.) (Previous post.)
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