Ignoring Bush administration officials' willingness to discuss the CIA leak investigation, involving the outing of former CIA agent Valerie Plame, when it serves their purpose, NBC News White House correspondent Kelly O'Donnell falsely claimed, on the April 10 edition of NBC's Today, that "[e]ven days after the president became publicly entangled in the CIA leak case, his long-standing, no-comment policy has held." O'Donnell was referring to the disclosure by special counsel Patrick J. Fitzgerald that Vice President Dick Cheney's former chief of staff I. Lewis “Scooter” Libby testified that he was told by Cheney that President Bush authorized the disclosure of portions of a classified National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) to rebut former ambassador Joseph C. Wilson IV's claim that the administration “twisted” the intelligence to make the case for war in Iraq.
O'Donnell's claim that Bush's “no-comment policy” on the CIA leak case “has held” overlooks several instances in which Bush -- or other administration officials -- have discussed the investigation. For example, Bush vowed, in September 2003, to fire anyone who “leak[ed] classified information.” Further, as Media Matters for America has documented, Bush claimed, in October 2005, that he had “consistently said I'm not going to talk about the case.” Yet, just a few months earlier, in July 2005, he had stated that he would “like this [investigation] end as quickly as possible so we know the facts, and if someone committed a crime, they will no longer work in my administration.” Additionally, as Think Progress pointed out, during an October 18, 2005, briefing, White House press secretary Scott McClellan explained that neither Bush nor Cheney had been asked to appear again before the special prosecutor, moments after dodging a question about Cheney's involvement in the leak by stating: "[O]ur policy is not to comment on an investigation while it's ongoing."
From the April 10 Edition of NBC's Today:
O'DONNELL: Good morning, [MSNBC anchor and correspondent] Natalie [Morales]. Today, the president talks about the current day's struggles about Iraq in a speech in Baltimore. But the CIA leak case brings about some of the original debate about the war, and now, a prominent Republican says the president owes more of an explanation. Even days after the president became publicly entangled in the CIA leak case, his long-standing, no-comment policy has held.
BUSH: I'm not going to talk about it until the investigation's complete.
