State Dept Scrubs Sites Of Video Denying Existence Of Iran Talks

The disappearance of Psaki’s comments gives further credence to Rhodes’ sensational claim that he and his colleagues in the White House created an “echo chamber” to advance Obama’s agenda. After all, if ordinary Americans can’t see her denying the existence of talks with Iran, how can they be sure that Rhodes was lying when he said the administration never denied their existence?

“In the magazine profile, published last Sunday, Rhodes and his aides are quoted describing how they disseminated White House-generated talking points about the Iran deal to generate and manipulate the public dialogue.

‘We created an echo chamber,’ Rhodes said. ‘They were saying things that validated what we had given them to say.’

Rhodes sought to soften the remarks on the website Medium. In a post late Sunday, he wrote that he didn’t try to dupe the press or spin Washington.

‘It wasn’t ‘spin,’ It’s what we believed and continue to believe, and the hallmark of the entire campaign was to push out facts,’ Rhodes wrote. ‘These were complicated issues.’

The Times piece, however, quotes Rhodes lamenting the ignorance of Washington reporters. (‘They literally know nothing’), and describes Rhodes — a former aspiring novelist — as focused on crafting a storyline and dismissing facts that don’t fit.

Rhodes also appears to try to keep secret news that Iran had seized 10 U.S. Navy sailors until after the president’s State of the Union speech.

In his statement Monday, McCain, a long-time critic of the Iran pact, said the Times piece ‘provided a troubling glimpse of the White House spin machine that has put sustaining ‘the narrative’ above advancing the national interest.’

White House spokesman Josh Earnest has said Rhodes’ concern about the timing of the disclosure of seizure of the sailors in January was primarily about the sailors’ safety — not about concerns that the news would interfere with the president’s speech. He said he was certain Rhodes would recast his description of the Washington press corps.

‘I assure you that’s not how it was intended, and based on that reaction I’m confident he would say it differently if given the chance,’ he said.”

Source: Fox News