In her first Capitol press conference since the election, House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said “it would have been nice” if the Obama administration had briefed congressional leaders about the ongoing scandal involving former CIA director Gen. David Petraeus “before we saw it on TV.”
“I think there are some answers that we have to have about notification to Congress. I don’t have any reason to think that there are any national security issues at stake in what has transpired. I think some dishonorable things were done and the honorable thing has to be to resign,” Pelosi said at the Capitol on Tuesday.
Pelosi was asked if the matter should have been reported to Congress earlier. She replied that it didn’t have to be, but she wishes it was.
“If it doesn’t involve national security, the notification requirement doesn’t trigger. If it involves poor behavior, yeah, it would have been nice to know before we saw it on TV,” Pelosi responded.
She also questioned why Petraeus would engage in an affair and leave an e-mail trail of evidence.
“This was a personal indiscretion as far as we know. Why somebody would be personally indiscrete is their own problem. Why they would do it in e-mails is beyond my imagination.”
Pelosi spoke with the acting director of Central Intelligence about the situation but wouldn’t provide details of their conversation at the press conference.