White House Fights Back

The White House denies that comments made in Buffalo in 2004 conflict with the secret NSA spy program. During earlier remarks at Kleinshans Music Hall the President had said: Now, by the way, any time you hear the United States government talking about wiretap, it requires -- a wiretap requires a court order. Nothing has changed, by the way. When we're talking about chasing down terrorists, we're talking about getting a court order before we do so. Now the White House is trying to claim the remarks aren't on point because they were delivered in context of a discussion about the Patriot Act. This is no longer spin—it's a bold lie. There is only one credible interpretation of his comments: the Patriot Act does not change the fact that warrants are needed for wiretaps. It'll be interesting to see if this line of defense gets picked up by his base—a true litmus test for the Orwellian rhetoric of a President divorced from accountability.