Gregory omitted White House interview preconditions for a third time

On the March 23 edition of NBC's Today, NBC News chief White House correspondent David Gregory -- for the third time in four days -- omitted the preconditions stipulated by the Bush administration for allowing White House senior adviser Karl Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers, and other current and former staff to be interviewed by congressional committees investigating the firing of eight U.S. attorneys. Gregory also reported that, according to White House press secretary Tony Snow, the White House "signaled some room for compromise" on these preconditions, apparently ignoring Snow's March 22 statement that the administration is "not negotiating. This is our offer."

In his report, Gregory noted that the White House "has refused to allow Rove or other officials to testify under oath" but omitted the further demands laid out by White House counsel Fred Fielding in his March 20 letter to the chairmen and ranking members of the House and Senate Judiciary Committees:

• that interviews be conducted behind closed doors;

• that they not be televised or transcribed;

• that there be no "subsequent testimony";

• that no subpoenas be issued following the interviews;

• and that committee members ask no questions concerning internal White House communications.

Gregory also aired a clip from the Senate Judiciary Committee's March 22 meeting regarding the Bush administration's offer of interviews, during which Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-VT) is shown rejecting Sen. Arlen Specter's (R-PA) suggestion that the committee members "take what we can get" from the White House. The clip ended with Leahy saying: "[W]hat we're told we can get is nothing -- nothing, nothing." However, in his full response to Specter, as shown on the March 22 edition of CNN Newsroom, Leahy defined "nothing" by noting several of the preconditions that Gregory omitted: "We're told that we can have a closed-door meeting with no transcript, not under oath, limited number of people, and the White House will determine what the agenda is. That, to me, is nothing."

Gregory went on to report that "[t]he White House has ... signaled some room for compromise," then aired a clip of Snow, from a March 22 press briefing, saying: "I don't think members are all that eager to have a big fight either. We don't want to fight." But while Gregory appeared to interpret this statement as evidence that the White House is open to "compromise," he apparently ignored Snow's response to a reporter's question during that same March 22 briefing about whether the White House's "offer" was "non-negotiable." Snow replied: "We're not negotiating. This is our offer. This is our position." In contrast with Gregory's report, a March 22 Associated Press article described Snow as unyielding, reporting that he "cast the administration's offer to allow Rove, former White House counsel Harriet Miers and their deputies [to] talk to lawmakers in private as the best deal Democrats are going to get."

After airing the clip of Snow, Gregory reported: "Seizing on some of that language, Senate Democrats have sent a letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding asking whether his original offer about those interviews with White House officials was a take-it-or-leave-it offer or ... whether there was some room for compromise." Presumably, Gregory was referring to the March 22 letter sent by all 10 Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee to Fielding, which did not suggest in any way that they interpreted any statements made by the White House as indicating an openness to compromise. Rather, the Democrats wrote: "Some of us have heard that your letter is a 'take it or leave it' offer and that you have characterized it as your best and final offer. We cannot accept the limitations and conditions you seek to impose on the Committee's investigation in your March 20 letter."

From the March 23 edition of NBC's Today:

GREGORY: At the same time, the Senate has joined the House by authorizing subpoenas for White House officials, including Karl Rove, even as some Republicans counseled compromise.

SPECTER: Why not take what we can get in the interests of --

LEAHY: No, no -- what -- no, what we're told we can get is nothing -- nothing, nothing.

GREGORY: The White House has refused to allow Rove or other officials to testify under oath, but signaled some room for compromise.

SNOW: I don't think members are all that eager to have a big fight either. We don't want to fight.

[end video clip]

GREGORY: Seizing on some of that language, Senate Democrats have sent a letter to White House counsel Fred Fielding asking whether his original offer about those interviews with White House officials was a take-it-or-leave-it offer or, [co-host] Matt [Lauer], whether there is some room for compromise.

From the 11 a.m. ET hour of the March 22 edition of CNN Newsroom:

DANA BASH (CNN congressional correspondent): Listen to this brief exchange between the two of them.

[begin video clip]

SPECTER: If we don't like what we get, we can always issue a subpoena and move with the subpoena if we don't like what we hear.

LEAHY: That's not --

SPECTER: Why not take what we can get in the interests of --

LEAHY: No, no -- what -- no, what we're told we can get is nothing -- nothing, nothing. We're told that we can have a closed-door meeting with no transcript, not under oath, limited number of people, and the White House will determine what the agenda is. That, to me, is nothing.

—B.J.L.