The White House has pulled out all the stops in their efforts to defeat Mitt Romney. They've used some odd fundraising tactics, like asking people to donate to the campaign in lieu of wedding gifts, and now they are running campaign ads with blatant lies in them. The lies are so bad that they've been debunked by multiple sources like factcheck.org and PolitiFact. But when Obama advisor Robert Gibbs was grilled on the ads, he double downed on the lies.
Mediaite reported, "On CNN’s State of the Union today, Candy Crowley grilled Obama campaign advisor and former White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs on a recent attack ad released hitting Mitt Romney for outsourcing. Crowley ran the ad, pointing out that The Washington Post rated it false (“four Pinocchios”), and challenged Gibbs to explain why this is still being used as a line of attack against Romney."
Watch:
In the video, Crowley asked Gibbs, "...There's no evidence here that any of the fact check organizations have found that, A, he outsourced jobs or was president of Bain when that happened and, B, that he's done anything illegal. You've had a lot of advice from folks, Democrats saying get off of this particular Bain thing. There's obviously some polling that shows, in fact, there's ‑‑ it's having some effect on some of the battleground states. But why keep on it?"
Gibbs responded to the questioning by asking why Romney hasn't released tax forms for the past few years and wondered why he kept money in Swiss bank accounts. However, when Crowley asked if he was implying that Romney had done anything illegal he could only respond "Nobody knows".
Glenn said there were a few key things to take away from this confrontation.
First, Crowley said that these attacks on Romney/Bain are hurting the candidate in some swing states. However, the attacks are all lies, showing the administration doesn't care about the truth but rather only care about what people will assume is truth in swing states.
"The polling numbers are showing that this attack on Romney is working in some swing states. That's all they care about: Some swing states. This is not a president who is the president of the United States. He is the president of some swing states. He is a president of coalitions," Glenn said.
"This is not the uniter we were promised. This is the divider we all feared," he added.
Second, the administration doesn't care if these attacks are based in truth or not. Even liberal organizations and media are pointing out the lies.
"You'll notice they don't care. How many times does this have to be pointed out? Factcheck.org is a liberal organization. It's not a conservative organization. It's a liberal organization. Same thing with the Washington Post. Washington Post is not a conservative newspaper. It is a liberal newspaper," Glenn said.
"(The White House) know that the Washington Post only matters to the liberal elite, only matters to the media elite, but the media doesn't matter to the American people anymore. Only the stuff that punches through - if you say a lie loud enough and long enough, people start to believe it," Glenn said. "Most Americans don't want to hear that their president is a liar. Most Americans don't want to hear that their president possibly is on the wrong side. Most Americans don't want to hear that their president is a Marxist. So they will avoid those things at all costs."
"The reason why they don't want to hear this is because we as Americans tend to see ourselves in others. We tend to see the highest possibility. We still respect the president of the United States. Even if we disagree with him, we still respect that office," Glenn continued. "We don't think that other people are actually trying to destroy us. We don't think people are capable of that. And so we don't want to hear that our president is a liar because we don't think our president could be a liar. Even though we've all had proof president after president after president that they are just like us: They do lie."
Glenn said that its that belief in the inherent goodness of others and trust in the office of the President that allows people like Gibbs to blatantly lie to the American people.
"They know that the Washington Post doesn't matter. hey know that Candy Crowley, she's nothing. They know that she has no credibility compared to the office of the president of the United States. They have no credibility. They know that NBC doesn't have any credibility. They know how you feel about the press. All they're doing is confirming it."
"(The media) have gotten so deeply in bed, they discredited themselves over and over and over again and he's been there helping them, rewarding them, warning them that if they don't discredit themselves, in so many words, warning them that if they don't play ball, they'll be done, too. And all the while we've been ringing the bell."
"If the Washington Post would have had real journalists in there, if the Washington Post would have put Woodward and Bernstein in a year ago, year and a half ago to explain and to expose what this government was doing on both sides of the aisle, the Washington Post would make a difference today. If they were angry or not, it wouldn't matter. But it doesn't anymore. Gone are the days of Woodward and Bernstein. And they did it to themselves."
