Robert Gibbs Misleads on Iran on 'Meet the Press'
Monday, 12 Jul 2010 10:03 AM
By: Richard Grenell
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs is a campaign style spokesman who thrives on political spin. But after almost 18 months of acting as the official White House spokesman, he shouldn’t be allowed to spin foreign policy facts on "Meet the Press" without pushback from David Gregory or other journalists.
On Sunday, Gibbs tried to spin the Obama administration’s policies on Iran and North Korea by misrepresenting the facts about the support the Obama team got at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC).
Gibbs either doesn’t understand what happened at the U.N. or he is lying. Gibbs repeatedly referred to “bringing everyone to the table” to support “the strongest sanctions” the U.N. has ever placed on North Korea and Iran.
He also said that the Bush administration didn’t have the support of Russia and China on their sanctions resolutions in “September or October 2008” and that the Obama administration has “better relationships with countries” and “improved relationships . . . that make our country safer.” But the facts show that Gibbs is wrong.
Gibbs should know that the Obama team, lead by U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, failed to get a unanimous vote on the first and only Iran sanctions resolution this administration has authored.
In fact, the Obama team failed to get the support of Lebanon, Turkey, and Brazil. Of the 15 members of the Security Council, Rice and the Obama team only received 12 votes — the least amount of support we have ever seen for a UNSC sanctions resolution on Iran.
While Gibbs claims that everyone is at the table, the Obama table has more empty seats than the Bush table had. Despite what Gibbs tries to spin, the Bush team got fewer no votes in five resolutions on Iran than the Obama team got on their one and only resolution.
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