During an interview with David Axelrod on “the Axe Files,” former Obama White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said he doesn’t recognize the position of press secretary and that President Obama never asked him to say anything untrue.
Axelrod asked, [relevant exchange begins around 43:00] “What is the price of being the press secretary for a president who serially doesn’t tell the truth?”
Carney answered, “It’s not a job I recognize. I couldn’t imagine what that’s like. Because I couldn’t imagine myself being in that position.” He added that previous Republican and Democratic press secretaries he spoke to told him not to lie because it’s wrong and would damage his credibility and “[I]f your credibility starts to erode, the president’s credibility starts to erode, the administration’s credibility, the country’s credibility.”
Carney further stated, “I remember people asking me, ‘What did you do when the president asked you to say something that wasn’t true?’ I said it never happened. It’s inconceivable to me that it ever would have happened.”
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