President Obama first learned of the Veterans Affairs scandal involving secret patient waiting lists from cable news, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Monday.
“When was the president first made aware of these problems?” CNN’s Jim Acosta asked. “These fraudulent lists that were being kept to hide the wait times?”
Carney said he learned about it from watching CNN reports.
“You mean the specific allegations that were first reported by your network out of Phoenix? I believe we learned about them through reports,” Carney said. “That’s when, as I understand, Secretary [Eric] Shinseki learned about them.”
The problem with that explanation is that the Obama-Biden transition team was informed of VA wait time discrepancies in 2008, according to the Washington Times.
Responses from Twitter were brutal, according to tweets compiled by Twitchy, which included:
What kind of executive are you if you don’t know about what goes in your admin until you hear about in the media?
— Jay Caruso (@JayCaruso) May 19, 2014
If this admin STILL gets all of it’s info from the freaking news, they’re not just inept–they occupy jobs they shouldn’t have.
— Krystle (@TarheelKrystle) May 19, 2014
‘We learned about it on the news’ — @PressSec Umm, we’ve heard this before.
— Sarah Isgur Flores (@whignewtons) May 19, 2014
This isn’t the first time the administration has claimed ignorance of a scandal. In May 2013, Obama said he first learned from the media that the Internal Revenue Service was targeting conservative groups.
A TV room with several monitors streaming news from every outlet would be cheaper than advisors and staff.
— drew (@FigDrewton) May 19, 2014
White House chief of staff grilled on Obama’s silence in VA scandal: He’s ‘madder than hell’
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