WH Scapegoats Counsel Ruemmler for Benghazi, IRS

On Wednesday, the White House’s favorite media outlet, BuzzFeed, reported from anonymous White House sources that the administration counsel, Kathryn Ruemmler, was largely responsible for both the IRS and Benghazi scandals. “Advisors Urged Obama Early On To Release Comprehensive Benghazi Timeline,” BuzzFeed breathlessly reports, adding, “How Obama got tripped up by his lawyers.” See, it was all the fault of one woman. It’s only a matter of time until the White House blames Ruemmler for seizing the phone records of the Associated Press and Fox News’ James Rosen as well.

According to BuzzFeed, “The White House Counsel’s office advised senior Obama officials to keep quiet about the attack in Benghazi during the weeks preceding last year’s November presidential election, according to two administration sources.” The BuzzFeed report dramatically exculpates Ben Rhodes, the administration insider widely suspected to have been involved in manipulation of the Benghazi talking points. The BuzzFeed source says, “It was aggravating. It comes back to Kathryn Ruemmler, Kathryn Ruemmler, Kathryn Ruemmler. I hate to say it, as it sounds like piling on, but it’s on her doorstep too.”

BuzzFeed, doing its damndest to protect Rhodes and the administration, spins away: “Rhodes and other officials believed that the best way to squash the controversy was to be as open and transparent as possible …. The disclosure of emails between Rhodes and others that were released appear to back up this point of view–the massaging of talking points more an exercise in inter-agency bureaucracy than an a political plot, as Republicans in Congresss continue to allege.”

Ruemmler has also been blamed for the President not being aware of the IRS investigation, despite the fact that she did let White House Chief of Staff know about the investigation in April.

Ben Shapiro is Editor-At-Large of Breitbart News and author of the New York Times bestseller “Bullies: How the Left’s Culture of Fear and Intimidation Silences America” (Threshold Editions, January 8, 2013).