Flashback 2007: Obama attacked trying ‘to hide behind executive privilege’

Matt K. Lewis Senior Contributor
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The RNC greeted news that President Obama would assert executive privilege to withhold documents associated with the Operation Fast & Furious, by sending this video around:

CNN’S LARRY KING: “Do you favor executive privilege or should Karl Rove and others in that like position be forced to testify before the House or Senate?

OBAMA: “Well, you know, I think we’ll — we’ll determine over the next several weeks how this administration responds to the very appropriate call by Patrick Leahy, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, to have these individuals come in and testify. You know, there’s been a tendency on the part of this administration to — to try to hide behind executive privilege every time there’s something a little shaky that’s taking place. And I think, you know, the administration would be best served by coming clean on this. There doesn’t seem to be any national security issues involved with the U.S. attorney question. There doesn’t seem to be any justification for not offering up some clear, plausible rationale for why these — these U.S. attorneys were targeted when, by all assessments, they were doing an outstanding job. I think the American people deserve to know what was going on there.

SOURCE: CNN’s “Larry King Tonight,” 3/20/2007

Matt K. Lewis