Politics

Robert Gibbs may be leaving the White House

Steven Nelson Associate Editor
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The Washington Post is reporting that White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs may be leaving his job in the next few weeks.

The Post references two unnamed Democrats as the sources of this information, writing that Gibbs may set up his own consulting firm ahead of the 2012 presidential election.

In August 2010 Gibbs infuriated many liberals by lashing out at critics frustrated with President Obama, famously criticizing the “professional left.”

“I hear these people saying he’s like George Bush. Those people ought to be drug tested,” Gibbs said in the controversial interview with The Hill.  “They will be satisfied when we have Canadian healthcare and we’ve eliminated the Pentagon. That’s not reality.”

Outgoing Florida Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson and other liberals called on Gibbs to resign following the comments. Grayson said in an interview on MSNBC, “He should be fired” and, “He’s doing a miserable job, it’s that simple, he’s so far in over his head that he’d have to reach up to touch his shoes.”

In December, Karl Rove called Gibbs a “less than adequate press secretary.” Rove said that a press secretary “is supposed to return the phone calls and answer the emails of people that are in the press corps, and he doesn’t.”