Gibbs Zings Rumsfeld: ‘You Go To War With The Sec. Of Defense You Have’

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by Tommy Christopher | 5:41 pm, December 2nd, 2009

» 15 comments

gibbs At today’s White House press briefing, ABC’s Jake Tapper asked Robert Gibbs to clarify this statement from last night’s address, which former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld has taken exception with:

Commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive.

In doing so, he set Gibbs up to deliver a nostalgia-inducing punchline.

At issue is whether the President’s line was referring only to 2008 troop requests (as opposed to Rumsfeld’s tenure as Defense Secretary). Not content simply to say “Yes,” Gibbs pointedly asked (3 times) that we let Rumsfeld explain to the American people whether the war in Afghanistan was “appropriately resourced” during his tenure.He also let go of this Rummy zinger, to an unimpressed Tapper.

Transcript of the exchange (via ABC News):

TAPPER: Former Defense Secretary Rumsfeld took issue with a lot of the speech last night, and I just wanted to clarify it. The president said commanders in Afghanistan repeatedly asked for support to deal with the reemergence of the Taliban, but these reinforcements did not arrive. I assume you’re referring to the McKiernan requests throughout 2008.

GIBBS: Well, I — that’s, I believe, what the speech — the line of the speech. I will let Secretary Rumsfeld explain to you and to others whether he thinks that the effort in Afghanistan was sufficiently resourced during his tenure as secretary of defense.

TAPPER: Well, he says…

GIBBS: I — I think that’s — that’s something that, you know…

TAPPER: … he said he’s not aware of a single request of that nature between 2001 and 2006 when he was secretary of defense.

GIBBS: I — again, I’ll let him explain to the American public whether he believes that the effort in Afghanistan during 2001 to 2006 was appropriately resourced. You know, you go to war with the secretary of defense you have, Jake.

TAPPER: That’s cute. The — the question, though, is what specifically was President Obama talking about when he said that?

GIBBS: Again, what President Obama was talking about were additional resource requests that came in during 2008, which we’ve discussed in here. But Jake, again, I’ll leave it to the secretary of defense in 2001 to 2006 to discuss the level of resourcing for that — understanding the level of commitment that we already had dedicated in Iraq, and whether or not he feels sufficient that history will judge the resourcing decisions that he made during that time period in the war in Afghanistan were or were not sufficient.

TAPPER: OK. And some progressive Democrats on the Hill have said today that they think that the president should pursue a war authorization for the surge of troops. Are you guys thinking about doing that at all or…

GIBBS: No, I think the president…

TAPPER: …do you think the 2001 authorization…

GIBBS: Yes, I think the president made very clear last evening that — why we are there now. The conditions for what happened on September 11th brought our forces, through an almost unanimous vote of Congress, to Afghanistan. And obviously that is inordinately — it’s plenty sufficient for what the president is talking about.

TAPPER: And if I may, just one more. In his March — in his March speech President Obama mentioned that if the Taliban returns to controlling Afghanistan it would be bad for human rights. And he specifically singled out women and girls. He did not mention human rights in Afghanistan. He talked about human rights more broadly, but last night he didn’t mentioned human rights in Afghanistan and he definitely didn’t mention specifically women and girls.

GIBBS: Well, I believe in — I believe in the context of the three pillars that he saw, mentioning the basic recognition of human rights in Afghanistan is obviously important to what is happening there.

TAPPER: But he didn’t mention women and girls, and is that…

GIBBS: Again, I think the umbrella of basic human rights was — was the same thing.

TAPPER: So even though he mentioned it in March and he didn’t mention it last night, we’re not supposed to read anything into that at all?

GIBBS: I wouldn’t. I mean, I have not looked exactly at the word phrasing of each speech, but the umbrella of basic — recognizing the basic human rights of everybody in Afghanistan would include that, yes.

TAPPER: Thank you.

Donald Rumsfeld Quote, Jake Tapper, Robert Gibbs, Robert Gibbs Jake Tapper, Robert Gibbs Quote, Tommy Christopher, You Go To War With The Secretary Of Defense You Have

ChrisNH

I don’t know how many of these ‘spirited exchanges’ Gibbs has in him before he decides to chuck it all and become an elementary school teacher (or something more suited to his persona).
TfT

So, in other words, Obama threw Gates under the bus, not Rumsfield.

Gibbs is a clymer.
Sunnyr

How many times can this stammering, incoherent jerk prove what a bogus fool he is? He is embarrassing! There is a place in history for this ignoramus, right between Baghdad Bob and Goebbels.
libra blue

Is Gibbs the dorkiest press secretary ever or what? He makes Scott McClellan look competent! And what about Helen Thomas’ performance; she has more balls that the whole bunch of them put together!

Mediaite really needs to do a post on Helen!
http://www.sailrabbits.com Magister

I’m confused. Do you mean “Rummy zinger” because Gibbs delivered a twist on a famous Rumsfeld line or do you think he zinged Rumsfeld?

I took it as Gibbs knows Gates, but he only knows Rummy from TV.
MartiniShark

Clearly Tapper caught him on an inaccuracy because once he noted Rummy was only there through ’06 the original answer was moot, and Gibbs had to flail at repeating the same line of asking Rumsfeld if he was “Appropriately resourced”. What good would that do when the question surrounds a ’08 request? It seems Gibbs went to the podium with that “Go to war with the SD that you have” barb in his pocket, but then he was off balance when facts screwed up the punchline.
TinaFromTampa

TfT, once again, you are so perceptive.
TfT is a bovine.
Facebook User

This was just a security breach, a short-term issue. What should be much more disturbing – but which few others have mentioned – is who was invited to the dinner. All of those listed – and their employers – are more than a bit too close to the administration. In case that’s not clear, imagine that GWB threw a party and everyone invited was a defense/contractor executive.

Even if you (incorrectly) think that just showing up isn’t an indication that they aren’t going to hold the BHO admin accountable, surely no one can deny that the BHO admin isn’t afraid of those sources; otherwise, why invite them to a private gathering?

People should be very worried about the current situation, but instead they concentrate on “reality” contestants.
JunkJunk

Did TinafromTampa just call herself a cow? I think she just did…
TfT

Evening JunkJunk, nice to see you. Yes, NotsoAnonymous (posing here as TinafromTampa) has followed me over here to continue her absurd behavior. Can you believe it? She wasn’t satisfied stalking me at TVNewser forever, so she tracked me down, took my TVNewser posting name, and stalks me here. It’s really quite humorous. She clearly has no life.

Anyway good to see you; hope you are enjoying all that global warming out in Colorado! :-)
roxsteady

Tappe is an idiot! The petty attempts by him and others who’ve noted this is really pathetic. The fact is Tapper was more interested in pointing out that Rumsfeld had left in 2006 that he’s trying to separate that period of neglect by Rumsfeld and his cronies. They took their eyes off the ball to go into Iraq where there were no WMD’s. With thousands of Americans and civilians killed Jake is troubled by the lack of “repeats” in the President’s speech. As for the party crashers:

From TPM
Members of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform emerged from a closed-door briefing on the White House party crashers this afternoon placing blame for the security breach squarely on the shoulders of a single, unnamed Secret Service officer.

“It’s very clear that there was one person who allowed these two individuals to go from Station 1 to Station 2,” Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA), the ranking member on the committee, told reporters. “One person’s error appears to have led to a person having literally hand-to-hand contact with the Vice President.”

Committee chair Edolphus Towns (D-NY) didn’t confirm Issa’s take on the closed-door briefing with Secret Service officials, but expressed his confidence that an internal investigation into the party crashing by the Secret Service will find a solution to the problem.

As I’ve said from the beginning, This falls squarely on the shoulders of the person who let these people in.
ImNotBlue

ChrisNH says:
December 2, 2009 at 5:49 pm

Elementary school. Hardly. College maybe… but with young children… no thank you!

TinaFromTampa says:
December 2, 2009 at 8:51 pm

Uh-oh… NotSoAnoymous has dropped the stalker persona, and is now just resorting to goofy insults. Uh-oh… someone’s “attack” isn’t working so well, is it? Poor NsA… looking for attention, and not finding any.

roxsteady says:
December 2, 2009 at 10:21 pm

Yes, Tapper is terrible because he asked hard questions and pointed out inconsistencies (or lies, depending on how you read it) in Pres. Obama’s speech. Darn him! Doesn’t he know he should only do that kind of thing towards Republicans? Who does he think he is… some sort of “journalist?”
http://www.facebook.com/people/Bill-Adkins/1585417987 Bill Adkins

Rumsfeld left in 2006 because he was a failure as a SecDef. Iraq was a mess, Afghanistan was foundering in a sea of neglect, bin Laden had escaped Tora Bora and our forces were targets in a religious civil war they were trying to quell in Iraq. Rumsfeld was no more than a lost ball in high weeds and a symbol of the ineffectiveness, impotence and downright incompetence of the Republicans who proved themselves to be not military geniuses but military idiots. Not much changed thereafter because 2001-2009, Bush and the Republicans were running the show. And look how that turned out.
ImNotBlue

Bill Adkins says:
December 3, 2009 at 7:07 am

Still no apology, Billy? We’re waiting to hear from you.
Sunnyr

This smarmy little freak, the most incompetent, incoherent, stuttering nincompoop we have EVER had to endure as White House Press Secretary is irrelevant and anything he says is tossed off as Gibbs Gibberish! What a complete waste this man is!!