During his Sunday “Meet the Press” appearance, President Obama brazenly lied to host Chuck Todd about his January reference to ISIS as “JV.” That’s not my judgment, it’s the judgment of PolitiFact, a site created to protect Democrats. This time, though, Obama went too far, even for a leftwing site like PolitiFact:
Obama said his JV comment “wasn’t specifically referring to ISIL.” He was not specifically asked about Islamic State, but it’s pretty clear this is the group that was being referenced in the conversation. The transcript backs this up, as do news events from the time of the discussion.
We rate the statement False.
Just last week, Washington Post fact checker gave this same spin 4 Pinocchios when White House spokesman John Earnest tried it.
Safe in the knowledge he never pays a political price for lying, just a few days later Obama was obviously confident he could repeat the “JV” lie to Chuck Todd.
Sure, the fact checkers will rate it “false,” but then the media almost always drops it. That way the media is on the record recording the lie but the next media phase, the one that never fails to bedevil Republicans, never happens: The phase where the media uses the lie to haunt the pol until he’s forced to take it back.
The one exception was Obama’s “you can keep your insurance” lie. In that case, the media was careful not to bring that particular lie up until after ObamaCare was safely passed into law and Obama was safely reelected.
John Nolte on Twitter @NolteNC
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