AP omitted that Santelli retreated from claim of White House “threat” when challenged by Lauer

Written by Eric Hananoki

Published

Writing about Rick Santelli's rant against President Obama's proposed foreclosure reduction plan, the AP's David Bauder reported that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs “was quick to criticize Santelli for his comments,” and that “Santelli said later he felt he had been threatened by Gibbs” and was “asked about it late last week on NBC's 'Today' show.” But Bauder failed to note that during that interview, Today host Matt Lauer told Santelli, “He [Gibbs] wasn't threatening you,” and Santelli replied: “Well, listen, I'm not saying threatening.”

In a March 2 Associated Press article about CNBC on-air editor Rick Santelli's February 19 rant against President Obama's proposed foreclosure reduction plan, writer David Bauder reported that White House press secretary Robert Gibbs “was quick to criticize Santelli for his comments” and that “Santelli said later he felt he had been threatened by Gibbs.” Bauder then reported that Santelli was “asked about [Gibbs' remarks] late last week on [the February 26 edition of] NBC's 'Today' show" by co-host Matt Lauer but did not note that during that interview, Lauer challenged Santelli's credibility, asserting, “He wasn't threatening you.” Nor did Bauder note Santelli's response to Lauer: “Well, listen, I'm not saying threatening.”

As the blog Think Progress noted, during the February 23 edition of The G. Gordon Liddy Show, Santelli said of Gibbs: “He started that press conference saying, 'I don't know where he lives. I don't know where his house is.' This is the press secretary of the White House. Is that the kind of thing we want?” When Liddy interjected, “That's a veiled threat,” Santelli responded, “It really is.” Liddy later said of Gibbs' comment, “And that's a veiled threat, you know, 'We know where you live,' and so forth.” Santelli replied, “It really -- it's quite scary.”

On Today, Lauer said of Gibbs' remarks about Santelli: "[A]fter you heard his comments, you said that he was threatening you. Are you serious about that?" Lauer later said to Santelli, "[W]hat Robert Gibbs said was, basically, he was -- and I'm paraphrasing here -- he was saying he's not sure that as a former trader and current television personality, you're living in the same kind of neighborhoods where people are struggling to pay their mortgages. He wasn't threatening you." Santelli replied:

SANTELLI: Well, listen, I'm not saying threatening. And just to be pinpointed specifically, I find very unusual, and I think that it's more of a decision for you as the press or all the people on the lawn that giggled at the joke about caffeine -- and it was funny -- but how would they like to be pinpointed specifically? I think that's the issue at hand. I don't want to make more out of this.

From Bauder's March 2 AP article:

Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs was quick to criticize Santelli for his comments. He urged him to print out a copy of Obama's plan and read it.

“I'd be happy to buy him a cup of coffee,” Gibbs said in a White House briefing. “Decaf.”

Santelli said later he felt he had been threatened by Gibbs. He was backed up by fellow CNBC personality Larry Kudlow, who called it “the worst press relations we've seen in our lifetime.” Santelli was then asked about it late last week on NBC's “Today” show.

“If you go out of your way to call out the president of the United States, you have to expect his representative to go out of his way to call you out,” Matt Lauer said. “Doesn't that go with the territory?”

Replied Santelli: “I don't know if he needs to throw out my name. I just have an issue with that.”