By Jonathan Allen and Jennifer Epstein
Once again, President Barack Obama spoke in the wake of a horrific mass shooting — this time, killings that were carried out near his home, of victims who worked in his government, with a crisis that was still ongoing when he stepped to the podium.
But the president’s handling of the massacre at the Navy Yard Monday contrasted sharply with his response to past tragedies.
After the Boston Marathon bombing and the Newtown school shooting, the president kept his messaging focused on the crises at hand, speaking out against the attacks but otherwise keeping a low profile. But on Monday, instead of calling for national unity — as he has in the wake of similar events — Obama spent most of his only public event slamming Republicans on budget matters.
The White House, removed in proximity and mood from the rest of the Washington, didn’t react the way other institutions did. By early afternoon, soon after Obama spoke, the Senate canceled business and closed entry to and exit from its buildings; schools and daycare centers on Capitol Hill had locked down; and the Washington Nationals, whose stadium sits just a few blocks from the Navy Yard, canceled their Monday night game against the archrival Atlanta Braves.
White House officials did delay the start time of Monday’s event so that Obama’s broadside wouldn’t be drowned out by a news conference held by city officials. But aides say they never considered canceling his remarks on the fifth anniversary of the 2008 financial crash, which were designed as a preview of the president’s line of attack in a fall battle over spending, the nation’s debt ceiling, and Obamacare.
Instead, they drafted a quick “thoughts and prayers” nod to the victims of the Navy Yard, followed by a brief update on Syria, at the top of a prepared offensive against Republican intransigence in Congress. He asked whether the GOP was willing “to hurt people just to score political points,” even as victims were still being treated for actual wounds sustained in Monday’s attack.
“The problem is at the moment, Republicans in Congress don’t seem to be focused on how to grow the economy and build the middle class,” he said in one of 11 direct references to the GOP. “I say ‘at the moment’ because I’m still hoping that a light bulb goes off here.”
Obama even knocked Washington — the city under siege as he spoke — for failing to find “common purpose.”
“If we follow the strategy I’m laying out for our entire economy — and if Washington will just act with the same urgency and common purpose that we felt five years ago — our economy will be stronger a year from now, five years from now, a decade from now,” he said.
Republicans were clearly rankled by the political attack on the heels of the outbreak of violence.
“It’s a shame that the president could not manage to rise above partisanship today,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “Instead, he should be working in a bipartisan way to address America’s spending problem — the way presidents of both parties have done before.”
But the GOP was generally muted. Boehner himself didn’t release the statement until hours after the president spoke Monday.
It’s not even clear what benefit the White House hoped to reap in launching a major fall offensive in the middle of a national and local tragedy that consumed media attention all day. Cable networks cut away from Obama’s remarks as soon as he finished talking about the Navy Yard.
A short time after Obama’s remarks, reporters in the White House briefing room prodded press secretary Jay Carney to defend the decision to give a highly partisan speech, or any speech at all, while local and federal officials were still trying to get their hands around what Carney acknowledged was “an unfolding event.”
“Tonally, did it not seem a little bit off in the middle of this manhunt, people being informed about lives lost, to move forward with an attack on the other side?” Fox’s Ed Henry asked.
Carney defended the approach. Yes, there was an “unfolding situation here in Washington with regards to a violent action and shootings, and it’s entirely appropriate for the president to address that at the top of his remarks” — but “time is short,” he said, to force action on a budget and a debt-ceiling increase.
When Peter Alexander of MSNBC followed up a few minutes later to ask whether Obama had even considered canceling his speech, Carney answered with just one word: “No.”
That answer didn’t sit well with some GOP operatives.
“Most expect the president to act as a consoler-and-chief in the face of tragedy, not to take to the podium and launch into a partisan tirade aimed at his political opponents,” said Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Then again, this is the President who flew to Las Vegas for a campaign fundraiser just after the American Embassy in Benghazi was attacked by terrorists, so sadly it seems more of the rule than the exception.”
While some Republicans fumed at the president’s partisanship, his allies defended his handling of the situation as the burden of leadership.
“The president is always going to be criticized … he is often in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation,” said Matt Miller, the former top spokesman in Obama’s Justice Department. “The truth is, he has to do a lot of things at once — he has to speak to national tragedies, he has to plan for upcoming fiscal challenges, and that’s what he did. He tried to walk and chew gum, as he’s said before.
“I’m sure they knew they would be criticized by some people, but you can’t be oversensitive to the criticism if you’re in the White House. The president was still appropriately sensitive to [the situation] by speaking about it,” Miller added.
Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman until earlier this year, argued that Obama struck the right balance. “The financial crisis is an event that impacted nearly every American, and they want to know what their government has done in response to date and will do in the future,” he said in an email. “So it’s completely appropriate for the president to talk to the American people about how he’s planning to create jobs.”
It was enough, Vietor said, for the president to discuss “the tragic shooting at the top of his remarks.”
Still, Obama appeared to shift gears as the day wore on. First Lady Michelle Obama had predicted earlier in the day that her husband would “shake his groove thing” at a Latin music event in the East Room that night. But late Monday — not long before the event itself was slated to begin — Obama officials announced that it had been postponed, “in light of today’s tragic events at the Washington Navy Yard and out of respect for the victims and their families.”
Minutes later, the flag atop the White House was lowered to half staff.
Once again, President Barack Obama spoke in the wake of a horrific mass shooting — this time, killings that were carried out near his home, of victims who worked in his government, with a crisis that was still ongoing when he stepped to the podium.
But the president’s handling of the massacre at the Navy Yard Monday contrasted sharply with his response to past tragedies.
After the Boston Marathon bombing and the Newtown school shooting, the president kept his messaging focused on the crises at hand, speaking out against the attacks but otherwise keeping a low profile. But on Monday, instead of calling for national unity — as he has in the wake of similar events — Obama spent most of his only public event slamming Republicans on budget matters.
The White House, removed in proximity and mood from the rest of the Washington, didn’t react the way other institutions did. By early afternoon, soon after Obama spoke, the Senate canceled business and closed entry to and exit from its buildings; schools and daycare centers on Capitol Hill had locked down; and the Washington Nationals, whose stadium sits just a few blocks from the Navy Yard, canceled their Monday night game against the archrival Atlanta Braves.
White House officials did delay the start time of Monday’s event so that Obama’s broadside wouldn’t be drowned out by a news conference held by city officials. But aides say they never considered canceling his remarks on the fifth anniversary of the 2008 financial crash, which were designed as a preview of the president’s line of attack in a fall battle over spending, the nation’s debt ceiling, and Obamacare.
Instead, they drafted a quick “thoughts and prayers” nod to the victims of the Navy Yard, followed by a brief update on Syria, at the top of a prepared offensive against Republican intransigence in Congress. He asked whether the GOP was willing “to hurt people just to score political points,” even as victims were still being treated for actual wounds sustained in Monday’s attack.
“The problem is at the moment, Republicans in Congress don’t seem to be focused on how to grow the economy and build the middle class,” he said in one of 11 direct references to the GOP. “I say ‘at the moment’ because I’m still hoping that a light bulb goes off here.”
Obama even knocked Washington — the city under siege as he spoke — for failing to find “common purpose.”
“If we follow the strategy I’m laying out for our entire economy — and if Washington will just act with the same urgency and common purpose that we felt five years ago — our economy will be stronger a year from now, five years from now, a decade from now,” he said.
Republicans were clearly rankled by the political attack on the heels of the outbreak of violence.
“It’s a shame that the president could not manage to rise above partisanship today,” House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said in a statement. “Instead, he should be working in a bipartisan way to address America’s spending problem — the way presidents of both parties have done before.”
But the GOP was generally muted. Boehner himself didn’t release the statement until hours after the president spoke Monday.
It’s not even clear what benefit the White House hoped to reap in launching a major fall offensive in the middle of a national and local tragedy that consumed media attention all day. Cable networks cut away from Obama’s remarks as soon as he finished talking about the Navy Yard.
A short time after Obama’s remarks, reporters in the White House briefing room prodded press secretary Jay Carney to defend the decision to give a highly partisan speech, or any speech at all, while local and federal officials were still trying to get their hands around what Carney acknowledged was “an unfolding event.”
“Tonally, did it not seem a little bit off in the middle of this manhunt, people being informed about lives lost, to move forward with an attack on the other side?” Fox’s Ed Henry asked.
Carney defended the approach. Yes, there was an “unfolding situation here in Washington with regards to a violent action and shootings, and it’s entirely appropriate for the president to address that at the top of his remarks” — but “time is short,” he said, to force action on a budget and a debt-ceiling increase.
When Peter Alexander of MSNBC followed up a few minutes later to ask whether Obama had even considered canceling his speech, Carney answered with just one word: “No.”
That answer didn’t sit well with some GOP operatives.
“Most expect the president to act as a consoler-and-chief in the face of tragedy, not to take to the podium and launch into a partisan tirade aimed at his political opponents,” said Brad Dayspring, spokesman for the National Republican Senatorial Committee. “Then again, this is the President who flew to Las Vegas for a campaign fundraiser just after the American Embassy in Benghazi was attacked by terrorists, so sadly it seems more of the rule than the exception.”
While some Republicans fumed at the president’s partisanship, his allies defended his handling of the situation as the burden of leadership.
“The president is always going to be criticized … he is often in a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation,” said Matt Miller, the former top spokesman in Obama’s Justice Department. “The truth is, he has to do a lot of things at once — he has to speak to national tragedies, he has to plan for upcoming fiscal challenges, and that’s what he did. He tried to walk and chew gum, as he’s said before.
“I’m sure they knew they would be criticized by some people, but you can’t be oversensitive to the criticism if you’re in the White House. The president was still appropriately sensitive to [the situation] by speaking about it,” Miller added.
Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman until earlier this year, argued that Obama struck the right balance. “The financial crisis is an event that impacted nearly every American, and they want to know what their government has done in response to date and will do in the future,” he said in an email. “So it’s completely appropriate for the president to talk to the American people about how he’s planning to create jobs.”
It was enough, Vietor said, for the president to discuss “the tragic shooting at the top of his remarks.”
Still, Obama appeared to shift gears as the day wore on. First Lady Michelle Obama had predicted earlier in the day that her husband would “shake his groove thing” at a Latin music event in the East Room that night. But late Monday — not long before the event itself was slated to begin — Obama officials announced that it had been postponed, “in light of today’s tragic events at the Washington Navy Yard and out of respect for the victims and their families.”
Minutes later, the flag atop the White House was lowered to half staff.
SoRo:
But, Bush flying over Louisiana and Mississippi to survey Katrina damage – at the behest of local officials – meant that he hated black people or something.
I guess Barack Obama hates Federal employees and civilians, who work for contractors during business with his precious government.
http://tinyurl.com/pdfe795
