Then Where Was He And What Was He Doing?

Skippy catches a puzzling statement from Press Secretary McClellan:

Q Scott, this morning, you said the President didn’t recall the conversation in the Situation Room on September 12th that Mr. Clarke said he had, where the President asked Dick Clarke three times to pursue links between 9/11 and Iraq. And you said he doesn’t — I had two questions. So did the President tell you or somebody in the White House over the weekend, he doesn’t recall?

MR. McCLELLAN: Yes, I talked to him. He doesn’t recall that conversation or meeting.

Q And that was — he said it this morning, or this weekend? When did he say that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Well, this weekend and this morning, yes.

Q Okay. And secondly, Clarke now says that he has three eyewitnesses, and he repeated it again this morning, and he named them — to the conversation.

MR. McCLELLAN: Let’s just step backwards — regardless, regardless, put that aside. There’s no record of the President being in the Situation Room on that day that it was alleged to have happened, on the day of September the 12th. When the President is in the Situation Room, we keep track of that.

In case you’re wondering, McClelland is talking about Septermber 12, 2001, the day after 9/11. So the President’s counter to Clarke’s charge that on 9/12 the President told Clarke to pursue links between 9/11 and Iraq is this: It Wasn’t Me (special I wasn’t there remix).

Ok, that’s par for the course, but if that’s really the line the administration wants to stick with, then I have a follow-up question: Where was the president if not in the situation (at any time that day) and what was he doing?



AB