U.S. National Security Advisor Susan Rice on Sunday pushed back against the notion that the Obama administration misled the U.S. public and manipulated the media in selling the Iran nuclear deal as concluded from the New York Times Magazine’s profile of Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications, Ben Rhodes.
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“Specifically, the appearance of a senior presidential adviser before Congress threatens the independence and autonomy of the President, as well as his ability to receive candid advice and counsel in the discharge of his constitutional duties”, Eggleston wrote.
Rhodes stirred up controversy last week when he told The New York Times that he intentionally created an “echo chamber” of supporters to build public support for the nuclear agreement.
The chairman of the House oversight committee, Representative Jason Chaffetz, said on Twitter he’d be glad to have the deal’s critics testify as well, if Rhodes is “man enough to show”.
Watching Obama administration staffers do a victory dance over the lies they told to pass Obamacare and the Iran Deal is like watching a linebacker celebrate a sack even as he’s hit with a 15-yard penalty.
As of Monday afternoon, Chaffetz was planning on Rhodes testifying before the House on Tuesday at the “White House narratives on the Iran Nuclear Deal”.
Asked earlier Monday about the possibility of a Rhodes appearance, Earnest did not rule it out but expressed what he called “thinly veiled skepticism about the whole exercise” and reiterated his claim that it is Republicans who should answer “for saying a lot of things about the Iran deal that turned out not to be true”.
Earnest singled out Sen. She went further, saying that the deal is already showing signs of success, since it has “successfully cut off all of Iran’s pathways to a nuclear weapon”. “I’m just wondering if there would be more clarity if a guy of Ben Rhodes’ … intimate knowledge of the details, if that wouldn’t be helpful”.
In response, Earnest listed past instances when administration officials spoke with members of congress about the content of the detail and provided them information.
“I think there are some people who have some explaining to do when it comes to the wildly false accusations that they made about the Iran deal”.
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“Now we hear reports of NSC staffers running misinformation campaigns targeted at Congress and the press”, said Representative Mac Thornberry, author of the legislation.
