in their own words
 |
|
|
|
 Unnecessarily Personal And Accusatory - White House Press Briefing by Robert Gibbs 6/17/09 — Thursday, June 18, 2009 —  Q Okay, and just one other question. Senator Claire McCaskill yesterday expressed concern about the way in which President Obama fired the Inspector General of the Corporation for National and Community Service, saying that it did not abide by the law that McCaskill wrote and President Obama, as a senator, co-sponsored, in terms of giving Congress 30 days notice.Do you think that the White House handled the firing of Inspector General Walpin appropriately and according to that law? And if so, why is the author of the law incorrect? MR. GIBBS: Well, I would direct you, Jake, to the letter that Senator McCaskill received last night addressed to Senators Lieberman and Collins, which outline exactly the reasoning for the board's -- the bipartisan board's request to change Inspector Generals. Q Right, I've seen the letter. The law that McCaskill wrote -- MR. GIBBS: I'm not familiar with that part of what she's saying. But again, I'd point you to the letter. Q Okay, well, the law says that the President needs to give 30 days notice to Congress before an Inspector General is terminated. So that letter came, whatever, five or six days after he was terminated. MR. GIBBS: Again, I'll check into that. I mean, again, the board's action was precipitated by a meeting that happened on May the 20th. [...] MR. GIBBS: Major. Q Robert, just to follow up on Jake, was the White House unaware that it needed to inform Congress 30 days in advance about Mr. Walpin's intended firing? MR. GIBBS: I need to look at what Ms. McCaskill said regarding that. I just don't have that with me. Q But it's -- number one, it's the law of the land, and number two, Senator Obama voted for it. I'm just wondering if the White House was aware of that -- regardless of what Senator McCaskill said. MR. GIBBS: Well, since the question came based on what Senator McCaskill said -- and I haven't seen that part of it -- let me, as I just stated twice, check on that. Q Okay. The letter that was sent out last night was regarded by Mr. Walpin as "a total lie." And -- that's what he told us -- and he said it was unnecessarily personal and accusatory. And I wonder if you felt there was anything the White House wanted to say about that letter and the contents thereof in response to that? MR. GIBBS: Well, again, I think this was -- let me read the first sentence of the second paragraph. "Mr. Walpin was removed after a review was unanimously requested by the bipartisan board of the Corporation." These were views that were held by many people as part of that board, and certainly the administration stands behind what's in the letter. Q Following up on that, why not leave it at that and why did the White House feel it necessary to say he was disoriented and confused? MR. GIBBS: Well, I have occasion to watch FOX every now and again, and I think there have been commentators that surmised that maybe we needed to be more specific about the reasons. I think members of Congress have asked for that, and I think it's detailed in the letter. Congress | Inspectors General | President Obama | Press Briefing | Robert Gibbs | White House Press Corps Labels: Congress, Inspectors General, President Obama, Press Briefing, Robert Gibbs, White House Press Corps >> Full Story
Posted by White House Press Corps @ 9:18:00 AM
|
|
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
< whpc home