Media

White House Press Corps Badgers Gibbs On Torture Stance

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 4:45PM

The White House press corps gave Robert Gibbs a hard time today about President Obama's comments this morning that left the door open to prosecutions of Bush officials for torture.

It's true that the president's comments go further than anything he'd said before, and could suggest that the White House is tacking this way and that on a crucial subject. That impression is strengthened by the fact that the White House has now had to walk back Rahm Emanuel's comments from Sunday that the Bushies wouldn't be prosecuted.

Late Update: Looks like The Huffington Post's Sam Stein had the same response to the briefing that we did.

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Torture

White House: Rahm Didn't Mean What He Said On Not Prosecuting Bushies For Torture

Zachary Roth | April 21, 2009, 10:06AM

On Sunday, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel went on ABC's This Week With George Stephanopoulos and clearly declared that the Obama administration would not prosecute the Bushies who "devised" torture policies.

That seemed to go further than anything the administration had said before. So yesterday we called the White House to get a more formal statement on the issue. And when we didn't hear back, we got to wondering: had Rahm been freelancing, and gotten out ahead of White House policy?

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Barack Obama

Report: Rahm And Blago Talked About Senate Seat

Zachary Roth | December 12, 2008, 12:03PM

Did Rahm Emanuel speak to Rod Blagojevich about the governor's plans to fill the Senate seat left open by Barack Obama?

That's what a Fox affiliate in Chicago has reported, based on "a source familiar with the investigation" into the Illinois governor.

Fox Chicago News reports that Emanuel, the Chicago congressman who was appointed shortly after the election to be Obama's White House chief of staff, had "multiple conversations" about the issue with the governor himself and with Blagojevich's chief of staff, John Harris -- who this week was charged along with his boss.

The source said it was likely that these conversations were recorded, since they took place after the federal wiretaps had begun.

Of course, it would not be surprising if Emanuel had spoken to the governor about options to fill the seat. Fox Chicago said that the source didn't say whether those conversations involved any quid pro quo or dealmaking.

Obama yesterday pledged to canvass his staff about conversations with Blagojevich's office over the seat, and disclose what he finds out soon. Obama said that none of his staff had discussed any kind of deal for the seat.