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OBAMA Dismisses SCANDALS as PHONY
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[link to thehill.com]
President Obama on Wednesday dismissed a series of controversies dogging his administration as “phony” in remarks that represented a clear shift in White House tactics.
“With an endless parade of distractions, political posturing and phony scandals, Washington has taken its eye off the ball,” Obama said in an economic address at Knox College in Galesburg, Ill.
Obama’s comments marked an inflection point in the way the administration has been dealing with a raft of controversies, many of which the White House has previously suggested were substantive.
Obama on Wednesday did not specify which controversies were “phony,” but the administration has been attacked over National Security Agency surveillance programs leaked to the public, the IRS’s targeting of conservative groups, the Department of Justice’s seizing of media phone records, and last year’s attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, Libya.
While the White House has repeatedly accused Republicans of seeking to gin up a controversy surrounding the Sept. 11, 2012, terrorist attack in Benghazi, it had not described the other issues previously as phony.
The president in Galesburg said the GOP’s focus on scandals “needs to stop.”
“Short-term thinking and stale debates are not what this moment requires,” he said.
White House press secretary Jay Carney telegraphed Obama’s remarks on Tuesday, referring to scandals as “phony” in his press briefing.
Carney also had a heated exchange with MSNBC host Joe Scarborough on Wednesday morning, when he described the IRS controversy as a “phony scandal.”
Scarborough argued the scandal was not phony and noted that some reports said the IRS’s chief counsel office had been notified that agency employees in Cincinnati had been improperly targeted.
Carney then said investigations needed “to get to the bottom of what happened at the IRS.”
Democrats have argued there is evidence the IRS also targeted liberal groups, suggesting it did not single out conservative organizations for extra scrutiny.
The speech at Knox College in Galesburg was intended to bolster sagging public support for Obama, who has seen his approval rating drop as he has dealt with the controversies.
A Wall Street Journal/NBC News survey released Tuesday found the president with a 45 percent approval rating, while half the country said it disapproved of his handling of the job. It’s the lowest rating for the president since November 2011.
Wednesday’s address was intended to change the public conversation to the economy and jobs, an issue where the White House sees an advantage.
Obama declared the nation had “fought its way back” from the depths of the recession in a speech clearly targ
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