On Wednesday during the White House press briefing, Fox News White House correspondent Ed Henry confronted Obama press secretary Jay Carney on the controversy surrounding the administration’s use of drones to kill American civilians.
A leaked Justice Department memo unveiled by NBC News’ Michael Isikoff showed the Obama administration has an ” elastic” claim of what constitutes an “imminent threat” against the U.S., Isikoff argued.
ED HENRY, FOX NEWS: Jay, on the drones, why are you dancing around the question of whether or not we kill civilians? Why can’t the government at least admit that civilians have been killed?
JAY CARNEY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I don’t think that I’m dancing around it. I didn’t dispute it.
HENRY: You said I’m not necessarily disputing it.
CARNEY: Well, I’m just not going to — what I can’t do or what I’m not —
HENRY: Civilians have been killed, right?
CARNEY: I don’t disagree with that.
Henry proceeded to ask Carney about what sort of potential impact the news might have on Obama’s CIA nominee, John Brennan.
“The president believes that John Brennan is uniquely qualified,” Carney said. “He is a 25-year veteran of intelligence work, a 25-year veteran of the CIA. To lead that agency and as the president’s top counterterrorism adviser the past four years, he has done extraordinary work in the effort to combat al-Qaida. And through that work, we have seen significant decimation of senior al-Qaida leadership, including the decimation of Osama bin Laden. Mr. Brennan brings not only a vast amount of experience, but a significant perspective on the battles that we wage in this effort and the right way to conduct them. So the president believes the Senate should and will confirm John Brennan expeditiously.”