USA Today columnist Kirsten Powers argued that the White House “probably” knows which official referred to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “chickensh*t,” and that this individual is “a pretty senior person” on Thursday’s “Hannity” on the Fox News Channel.
“They probably know who said it. This must have been a pretty senior person, considering I don’t think Jeffrey Goldberg would have relied on somebody who was some c-lister. So, if it’s somebody senior, I think they probably know who is, and this is a White House that has been absolutely ruthless in rooting out people who speak out of turn or share information that they don’t want shared. So, we know that if they wanted to punish this person, they would” she said.
Powers added, “there definitely has been a shift with the Obama administration in terms of our relationship with Israel. I think that would be hard to deny…this kind of interview where they clearly knew this message was going to get out and at a very high-profile way, again, with a journalist that everybody reads. And so, this is the message that they wanted to be out about their view of Israel and they have not, in any way, tried to, like I said punish the person or retract it other than some sort of passing, the White House Press Secretary is sort of saying, ‘well, this isn’t our view of Israel,’ but, they don’t seem particularly upset about it.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.