Fox & Friends , NY Post complain about Obama press conference delay, which was due to document declassification
Fox & Friends‘ hosts and the New York Post editorial board complained that the “near-five-hour delay” (or “three-and-a-half hour delay”) of President Obama’s press conference addressing the intelligence review of Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab’s alleged attempt to set off a bomb on a Northwest Airlines flight on Christmas day was “disconcerting,” “strange and eerie,” “dysfunctional,” and “not what the White House should be doing.” In fact — as Fox & Friends co-host Steve Doocy at one point acknowledged — administration officials stated that the delay was required to declassify the summary of a report on the attempted attack which was released following the conference.
Fox & Friends hosts complaints continue even after Doocy acknowledges delay caused by need to “declassify” document
After Kilmeade called delay “strange,” Doocy said that according to “The Washington Post this morning … they were trying to declassify more of the stuff.” Co-hosts Brian Kilmeade, Gretchen Carlson, and Steve Doocy discussed the press conference delay on the January 8 edition of Fox & Friends:
CARLSON: But did anyone learn anything new yesterday? That was what was frustrating to me. Number one, they said we were going to have these shocking revelations. There was no big shock. But why was there that three-and-a-half hour delay?
KILMEADE: That was strange.
CARLSON: The president was supposed to come out at 1 p.m. and give us this shocking revelation. And then he did in fact not come out until 4:30 p.m. Eastern time. So what did they deem that was too shocking to tell the American public?
DOOCY: Well, I think part of it was they were rushing to try to declassify some of the stuff that they would talk about. And so they — you know they — according to one of the reports, I believe it was in The Washington Post this morning, that they were trying to declassify more of the stuff. But absolutely, when you look at the facts we already had, they were shocking enough already.
Carlson: Obama was “front and center yesterday giving his speech — three-and-a-half hours delayed — telling the American public guess what? We actually are at war.” Even after Doocy acknowledged the declassification of documents as the reason for the press conference delay, Gretchen Carlson still highlighted the delay, stating: “All right, let’s talk a little bit about the president of the United States because he was front and center yesterday giving his speech — three-and-a-half hours delayed — telling the American public, ‘Guess what? We actually are at war.’ ”
Johnson on the delay: “it was strange and eerie, it’s dysfunctional, it shows disorganization, it’s not what the White House should be doing.” Also after Doocy stated that the delay was due to declassification, Kilmeade and Fox News senior legal analyst Peter Johnson Jr. called the delay “strange and eerie”:
JOHNSON: But there’s something else that’s going on, and there seems to be some confusion. First of all, it took them hours to get the president out there. They kept on pushing back the time of the statement of the press conference –
KILMEADE: That was strange and eerie.
JOHNSON: It was strange and eerie, it’s dysfunctional, it shows disorganization, it’s not what the White House should be doing.
NY Post: press conference delay is “disconcerting message of irresolution and confusion”
From the January 8 New York Post editorial:
If Obama had lopped off a couple of heads after the Detroit fiasco — and yesterday wouldn’t have been too late — it would have sent a powerful signal: This guy means business.
He didn’t.
Equally disconcerting was the near-five-hour delay between the time Obama was scheduled to address the nation and when he finally did. Given that National Security Adviser Jim Jones had set the stage for the speech by promising that new information was at hand that would “shock” the nation, the delay sent a disconcerting message of irresolution and confusion.
Administration stated that “declassifying a highly complex document” caused delay
Gibbs apologized for the delayed press conference, citing “declassifying a highly complex document” as the cause. White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs opened the press conference by apologizing for the delayed time, stating that “declassifying a highly complex document takes some time, and we wanted to get that right.” From the January 7 press conference:
GIBBS: Good morning, guys. Good afternoon, or good early evening. I want to first apologize for the delay in the events that have occurred over the past couple hours. As you all know, declassifying a highly complex document takes some time, and we wanted to get that right.
Politico: “Officials acknowledged that the three-and-a-half hour delay” “due to efforts to clear the declassified summary through various government agencies.” From a January 8 Politco article:
Officials acknowledged that the three-and-a-half hour delay in Obama’s remarks, originally set for 1 p.m., was due to efforts to clear the declassified summary through various government agencies. In that time, some information was stripped out, though it’s unclear if it was whatever Jones and others deemed to be shocking.
“Was it redacted further? Yes it was,” said one official who asked not to be named. “One has to be extremely careful what is made public. It can provide knowledge to your enemies.”
Associated Press: Obama’s “remarks delayed twice as officials scrambled to declassify a six-page summary…of security failures.” A January 8 Associated Press article reported of Obama’s press conference: “He spoke from the State Dining Room at the White House, his remarks delayed twice as officials scrambled to declassify a six-page summary of a report he’d ordered from top officials on the security failures. That summary was released immediately after he spoke, as was Obama’s three-page directive to agency chiefs.”
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