The White House on Thursday denied it had threatened Washington Post reporting legend Bob Woodward, as a windy media sideshow linked to a showdown over huge budget cuts consumed Washington.
A row which blew up over Woodward’s criticism of President Barack Obama’s leadership on key economic questions, became the latest cudgel in a deepening dispute over how the White House treats journalists.
Woodward, part of the team along with Carl Bernstein that helped bring down ex-president Richard Nixon, took exception to a phone tirade and a follow-up email sent by top Obama economic advisor Gene Sperling.
In the email, Sperling apologized for shouting at Woodward, but contested his belief that Obama was “moving the goal posts” by demanding Republicans agree to revenue hikes as part of the latest attempt to cut the deficit.
“I think you will regret staking out that claim,” said Sperling in an email obtained by the Washington news organization Politico.
Woodward made clear in a follow-up interview with Politico that he saw Sperling’s comments as a threat.
“I don’t think it’s the way to operate,” Woodward said.
White House spokesman Jay Carney defended Sperling, a normally genial advisor, known for in-depth briefings on arcane economic policy.
“Gene Sperling, in keeping with a demeanor I have been familiar with for more than 20 years, was incredibly respectful,” he said.
Carney said Sperling “referred to Mr Woodward as his friend and apologized for raising his voice. I think you cannot read those emails and come away with the impression that Gene was threatening anybody.”
Carney, a former Time magazine White House correspondent who covered the Bush and Clinton administrations, said robust exchanges between reporters and officials were normal.
He said that he “never took it personally” when Clinton-era official and subsequent Obama White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel would rebuke him over his stories in his notoriously combative manner.
The row between the White House and Woodward fascinated Washington’s incestuous media and political elite and played into the dispute between Obama and Republicans over the huge budget cuts due to take place on Friday.
The “sequester,” made up of $85 billion in cuts, was used as a tool to ease a previous spending showdown, and was supposed to be so painful that Obama and Republicans would be forced to agree a deal to cut the deficit.
But partisan dysfunction has blocked a deal as Obama demands Republicans close tax loopholes to raise more revenues to accompany targeted budget cuts.
Woodward contends that when Obama agreed to the sequester it was clear that it was not supposed to be replaced by a deal which included new revenues.
The White House says it has long been known that Obama backs a “balanced” approach to cutting the deficit, which would include closed tax loopholes as well as less harmful spending cuts.
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