Out of the four broadcast news Sunday political shows on June 19, only Fox News Sunday covered Obama CIA Director John Brennan directly contradicting the President’s optimistic assessment of the war against ISIS.
Both CBS’s Face the Nation and ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos (hosted on Sunday by Jonathan Karl) mentioned the CIA director’s grim report, but failed to mention that it contradicted President Obama. NBC’s Meet the Press didn’t mention Brennan’s statement at all.
In contrast, on Fox News Sunday, host Chris Wallace devoted 9 minutes and 11 seconds to the “pretty stunning contradiction” between the two statements. “You had the president talking about making significant progress against ISIS and the very next day you had the CIA Director testifying before congress saying, yes, we are rolling back some of their territory, and we are killing some of their people, but, in fact, they are a greater threat than ever to the West.”
Political panelist Brit Hume agreed, arguing that “this is a point of vulnerability for the Administration and at a moment when the president’s approval rating had been rising, which is of inestimable help to his party's candidate, in this case, Hillary Clinton. This attack, I think , is for the time being, anyway, a game changer on that, and has thrown the administration on the defensive and the Brennan testimony hammers that home.”
For context, here are the two conflicting statements from President Obama and John Brennan from last week:
President Obama’s statement from June 14: "This campaign, at this stage, is firing on all cylinders. And, as a result, ISIL’s under more pressure than ever before."
CIA Director John Brennan’s statement from June 16: "Unfortunately, despite all our progress against ISIL on the battlefield and in the financial realm, our efforts have not reduced the group’s terrorism capability and global reach."
Transcript below:
CHRIS WALLACE: That was a pretty stunning contradiction on Tuesday. You had the president talking about making significant progress against ISIS and the very next day you had the CIA Director testifying before Congress saying, yeah we are rolling back some of their territory, yeah w are killing some of their people, but, in fact, they are a greater threat than ever to the West.
BRIT HUME: So, obviously, what the CIA Director is saying is that this policy in practice that the administration has put into place against ISIS is not working. The threat is growing. The President would never say that, I don’t think, I don’t think Brennan’s going to get fired, but you put that together with all of this argument about the use of the term, you know, radical Islamic terrorism, the refusal to use it by the Administration, this is a point of vulnerability for the Administration and at a moment when the President’s approval rating had been rising, which is of inestimable help to his party's candidate, in this case, Hillary Clinton. This attack, I think, is for the time being, anyway, a game changer on that, and has thrown the administration on the defensive and the Brennan testimony hammers that home.
