Politics

ABC’s Jonathan Karl demands Sean Spicer take oath of truth — Video

Spicer
Screengrab – MRC TV

On Monday, ABC’s Jonathan Karl actually demanded that White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer take what amounts to an oath of truth, angering a number of people.

“Is it your intention to always tell the truth from that podium? And will you pledge never to knowingly say something that is not factual?” Karl asked.

Spicer was more gracious than most would probably have been in the same situation, but turned it around on the media.

“It is,” he said. “It’s an honor to do this and, yes, I believe that we have to be honest with the American people. I think sometimes we can disagree with the facts. There are certain things that we may — we may not fully understand when we come out but our intention is never the lie to you, Jonathan. Our job is to make sure that — sometimes, you are in the same boat. There are times when you tweet something out or write a story and you publish a correction.”

Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?

Newsbusters’ Curtis Houck added:

ABC’s chief White House correspondent continued to bait Spicer into an endless debate about crowd sizes until he wondered if, in effect, Spicer was proud of how he blasted the reporters on Saturday: “And the approach that you took on Saturday, any second thoughts on that?”

Taking the example of Time’s Zeke Miller pushing false information about the make-up of the new Oval Office, Spicer fired back:

Look, Jonathan, look — I came out to read a statement and I did it. We’re here today. I’m going to stay as long as you want. So I want to make sure that — I think you guys might want to leave before I do. But, look, I want to make sure that we have a healthy relationship. We saw the other day that — and I’m not trying to rehash history but you’re asking the question so I’m going to answer it. We had a tweet go out about Martin Luther King. Think about how racially charged that is and someone rushes out and says to the entire press corps that the President of the United States has removed the bust from his office. Do you — I mean, think about what this signal — hold on.

Before moving on, Karl took one last swing: “Sean, did the media invent the feud between the president and the intelligence community?”

“Look, I think that — look, you saw from the response the other day, he walked into the CIA, people were hooting and hollering, gave him a standing owe vague. That doesn’t look like a relationship that’s, I mean, that’s — they were excited,” Spicer explained.

Here’s video, courtesy of Newsbusters:

But many wondered if Karl ever asked former Press Secretary Josh Earnest the same question:

https://twitter.com/redsteeze/status/823608595417858048

I don’t recall anyone ever asking Earnest or Jay Carney that question.  Could that be because they worked for a Democrat?

One person asked an even more important question:

https://twitter.com/litscmj/status/823613140483080192

Don’t hold your breath on that…

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Joe Newby

A 10-year veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joe ran for a city council position in Riverside, Calif., in 1991 and managed successful campaigns for the Idaho state legislature. Co-author of "Banned: How Facebook enables militant Islamic jihad," Joe wrote for Examiner.com from 2010 until it closed in 2016 and his work has been published at Newsbusters, Spokane Faith and Values and other sites. He now runs the Conservative Firing Line.

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