White House: 9/11 Victims Bill the ‘Most Embarrassing Thing the Senate has Done Since 1983’

Barack Obama suffered his first congressional override this week, nearly eight years into his presidency. Unsurprisingly, he and his staff aren’t taking the situation very well.

The White House lashed out at the Senate Wednesday for overriding President Obama’s veto of legislation that would allow U.S. citizens to sue Saudi Arabia over the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.

“I would venture to say that this is the single most embarrassing thing that the United States Senate has done, possibly, since 1983,” Obama spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters aboard Air Force One.

Earnest was responding to a reporter who told him Wednesday’s vote was the most overwhelming since a 95-0 veto override vote in 1983. In that year, the Senate overrode President Ronald Reagan’s veto of a land bill to give a few acres to six retired couples who paid for it, but later learned that it was still government property because of a surveying error.

The Senate voted 97-1 Wednesday to override Obama’s veto and the House is expected to hold its override vote on Wednesday afternoon, which is expected to pass by a wide margin. It will be the first time Congress successfully negates Obama’s veto.

The vote was a major blow to Obama, prompting questions about his diminishing sway over Capitol Hill and foreign policy months before he leaves office.

Earnest’s unusually harsh words are an effort to shame lawmakers for their support for the Justice Against Sponsors of Terrorism Act (JASTA), which passed unanimously through both chambers earlier this year.

Americans have a reason to be embarrassed by their government, but it’s not because of JASTA. It’s because they have a president who thinks that standing up for the rights of victims of terror is so embarrassing. The only ones embarrassing themselves is the White House. For once, all of Washington seems to agree that the Obama administration is wrong, but they can’t seem to accept it.

Source: The Hill