It seems that for Obama, some things are just more important than others.
During a press conference at the White House on Tuesday, the president said he was “not familiar” with reports that Benghazi whistle-blowers have been threatened by unnamed administration officials, the Weekly Standard reported. At the end of the press conference, however, the president ran back to the podium to praise Jason Collins, the NBA player who recently announced that he is gay, Jim Hoft said at the Gateway Pundit.
“I’m not familiar with this notion that anybody has been blocked from testifying,” Obama said when Fox News’ Ed Henry asked about the reported threats. “So what I’ll do is I will find out what exactly you are referring to.”
Victoria Toensing, a former Justice Department official and Republican counsel to the Senate Intelligence Committee, who is representing one of the State Department employees, told Fox News that her client and others have been threatened.
“I’m not talking generally, I’m talking specifically about Benghazi – that people have been threatened,” she said Monday. “And not just the State Department. People have been threatened at the CIA.”
Toensing did not name her client, nor did she say if the individual was at Benghazi when the attack took place, Fox added.
According to Toensing, the whistle-blowers have been told their careers would be over if they testified.
“It’s frightening, and they’re doing some very despicable threats to people,” she told Fox. “Not ‘we’re going to kill you,’ or not ‘we’re going to prosecute you tomorrow,’ but they’re taking career people and making them well aware that their careers will be over [if they cooperate with congressional investigators].”
On Obama’s way out, a reporter shouted a question about Collins, prompting the president to return to the podium to heap praise on the NBA player, telling reporters he “seems like a terrific young man.”
“I told him I couldn’t be prouder,” he said.
Video of Obama’s comments regarding Benghazi can be seen here.
His comments regarding Collins can be seen below, courtesy of the Gateway Pundit:
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=7qmznhJZ9sU]
Related:
- Hillary Clinton: Truth about Benghazi attack doesn’t matter
- Rep. Allen West: Ambassador Rice’s comments on Libya ‘asinine, naive, inept’
- Report: U.S. diplomats warned of security issues 3 days before consulate attack
- Military analyst: State Department, Clinton to blame for deaths in Libya
- White House denies State Department warned of possible embassy attacks
- House: Administration denied ‘repeated requests’ for extra security in Benghazi
- Jay Carney: ‘Self-evident’ that attack on Benghazi consulate was terrorism
- Retired officer: Obama watched Benghazi attack happen, sources say
- House: Administration denied ‘repeated requests’ for extra security in Benghazi
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