WH: 'Bump In The Road' Criticism 'Desperate And Offensive'

Reporter: The complaint this morning about the line “bump in the road” is not that it’s minimizing the Arab Spring, but that it’s minimizing the death — the violent death — of the U. S. Ambassador and three others. When he said “bump in the road” did he mean not to draw a parallel or not to define that event in Banghazi?

Mr. Carney: I appreciate the question, Ann, because that assertion is both desperate and offensive. The President was referring to the transformations in the region, to this process that has only began less than two years ago as we saw in Tunisia and continues to this day with remarkable transformations occurring in countries around the region. And, obviously, in these countries there are huge challenges, huge obstacles to do the kind of change that the people in these countries are demanding, to the kinds of government that are democratic in nature and responsive to the interests of average citizens in these countries. That was the context of the President’s comments and, again, I think I would say what I said to Dan which was; there is a certain, rather desperate attempt to grasp at words and phrases here to find political advantage — and in this case that’s profoundly offensive.