NPR: Ex-Press Secretary Says Top Bush Officials Misled Him

Ex-Press Secretary Says Top Bush Officials Misled Him

Former White House press secretary Scott McClellan, whose job was to deflect media scrutiny aimed at the White House, is now generating some of his own.

McClellan, who filled the role from July 2003 to April 2006, has a new book coming out, What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and What's Wrong with Washington. On Tuesday, his publisher, PublicAffairs, put a small excerpt on its Web site. In it, McClellan says some top administration officials were behind the effort to mislead the public about the role of White House aides in leaking the identity of a CIA operative.

In a 2003 news conference, McClellan told reporters that aides Karl Rove and I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby were not involved in leaking former CIA operative Valerie Plame's name to conservative columnist Robert Novak. (Plame's husband, former ambassador Joseph Wilson, had written an op-ed piece in The New York Times critical of the intelligence the Bush administration used to make the case for war in Iraq.)

"There was one problem. It was not true," McClellan writes... "I had unknowingly passed along false information. And five of the highest-ranking officials in the administration were involved in my doing so: Rove, Libby, the vice president, the president's chief of staff and the president himself."

Peter Osnos, founder and editor-in-chief of PublicAffairs, says Bush didn't know he was giving McClellan incorrect information. "The president told him what he thought to be the case," Osnos said. McClellan refused interview requests Tuesday.

But as The Washington Times' Inside Politics blog puts its, "Mr. McClellan's explosive if somewhat vague charge is sure to spark lots of interest and conversation over the coming months." In fact, Democratic presidential candidate Christopher Dodd has called for the Justice Department to investigate the president's role.

12:10 PM ET | 11-21-2007 | permalink

Comments

It is interesting to me that after all the flap over Bill Clinton lying about his personal life, that we have numerous examples of Bush and company apparently lying with impugnity over issues that are far more relevant to running our government. The lies told to steal ourselves a more secure gasoline supply have resulted in untold human suffering here and abroad. Shame on the president and his cronies.

Sent by Brad Rzepniewski | 1:15 PM ET | 11-21-2007

"Shame on the president and his cronies."

Oh yes, and shame on the American People for allowing such a thing. We should be demanding accountability from this folks, and we are not. We are too busy consuming everything from the newest gadget to the latest news on the likes of P - Hilton.

Sent by Randy T of Lewisville, TX | 2:32 PM ET | 11-21-2007

I find it humorous that the Bush administration has pulled the "vital to national security" card when asked difficult questions. Obviously they have no problem with breaking that rule when the person in question, Valerie Plame, has a non-Bushie mentality. Hypocrites all.

Sent by Alexander Wells | 2:36 PM ET | 11-21-2007

The fear of Brian lehrer
why won't he answer my question?
eh?

Sent by ellen rosner | 10:00 AM ET | 11-24-2007

It is a peculiarity of the American culture (which is not to say we are the only people that this is true of, far from it) that many people become much more incensed when the transgression involves sex and infidelity than they do when it involves killing masses of people. For some reason, I'm not sure why, lying about being unfaithful is soooooo much worse than lying about why our nation needs to invade another land and start a slaughter that will eventually kill hundreds of thousands of people and destroy families etc. Never mind that the fifth and sixth commandments are right next to each other. Then, on top of everything else, someone high up in this Bush administration commits what is clearly a traitorous act by divulging the name of an undercover CIA operative and then lying about that as well. Why isn't someone getting prosecuted as a traitor to his country? Same reason they're not being prosecuted for mass murder. Same reason their supporters always bring up Clinton's blowjob to deflect criticism. The idea that somehow, it's much much much worse to have unauthrorized sex than it is to kill needlessly. Why exactly should God bless America?

Sent by John R. Otten | 3:10 PM ET | 11-26-2007

Mr.secretary Scott McClellan: Not many believed you then and not many believe you now. No one mislead you. You were knowingly on the wrong side to defend lies.

Sent by anser azim | 4:09 PM ET | 11-26-2007

E-mail this Page

Recipient's e-mail address:	» Up to twelve addresses, separated by commas.
Your e-mail address:
Your name:
Personal message (optional, 600 characters max):
Your NPR member station:
Are you a member of your local NPR station?	Yes No
Would you like to receive information from your local NPR member station? (see NPR's privacy policy)	Yes No
Please send me updates from NPR.	Yes No

(Information collected by NPR will be used solely for internal NPR or NPR member station purposes and only if you selected 'yes' above. See NPR's privacy policy for more information.)

Tom Regan

Blogger

About Us

This year's election cycle has been one of the most exciting in memory. At the NPR News Blog we'll do our best to bring you interesting, informative -- and controversial -- stories from our own reporters and bloggers, as well as the rest of the best of the Internet and blogosphere. And we hope you'll let us know what you think as well.

Want to learn more? Be sure to read our Frequently Asked Questions and our discussion guidelines.