During his Tuesday press briefing, White House press secretary Jay Carney ridiculed a question from CBS correspondent Major Garrett about allegations involving improprieties by Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius by comparing it to the hubbub over President Barack Obama’s birth certificate.
According to reports, Sebelius may have been involved in soliciting funds from private business for a group called Enroll America to help implement the Affordable Care Act (popularly known as Obamacare) — an arrangement that could have violated federal law. Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee has compared the fundraising to the Iran-Contra affair of the 1980s.
But Carney declined to treat those queries seriously.
Transcript as follows:
GARRETT: Do questions about HHS Secretary Sebelius and her efforts through the private sector for Enroll Now fall into that category?
CARNEY: We can go down a list of questions — we can say, ‘What about the president’s birth certificate?’ — is that legitimate?
GARRETT: I’m not asking about that. It’s the last one.
CARNEY: OK.