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Axelrod and Sestak Grilled About Alleged Job Offer On… John King, USA?

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by Frances Martel | 1:28 pm, May 25th, 2010

» 11 comments

If White House Senior Adviser David Axelrod and Congressman Joe Sestak were expecting a hard time from the press about Sestak’s claim that the White House offered him a job to dissuade him from running against Sen. Arlen Specter, they may not have been expecting it on John King, USA. But host John King refused to let either of them off the hook without an answer, asking both to clarify the issue in the interest of public trust. What he got in return was five minutes of non-answers and awkward question evasion.

“If nothing inappropriate happened, then what appropriate happened?” King asked Axelrod, to which the latter replied that the allegations had been looked into and nothing inappropriate happened. Sensing that he was not going to get anything substantive out of the White House adviser, King upped the ante and reminded Axelrod of a campaign promise that has seemed to come up with increasing frequency in the past year:

“Candidate Barack Obama promised the most transparent administration in history. If these conversations did happen, it marches up into the gray area, perhaps into the red area of a felony. It is a felony to induce somebody by offering them a job. Why won’t the White House just say either Congressman Sestak is lying, or somebody has some conversation with him about a job?”

Axelrod responded to the claim that either the Congressman was wrong or the White House was by saying he believed Rep. Sestak would agree with what he had to say. While he didn’t quite get an answer he wanted, King still added that “I’m not trying to be a jerk, here,” at the end of the interview. If he felt a little shy at the end of the Axelrod interview, however, he brought none of that to his short talk with Rep. Sestak, asking the same questions and receiving even more veiled answers like “I’ve said all I’m going to say on the matter” and “we should be talking about how people are being slammed in this economy.”

The sum of the interviews was not exactly a Crossfire-style shout-fest, but on a program that can be a safe haven for middle-aged political married couples to sit around on couches, it was something of an anomaly, and one gets the sense from both Sestak and Axelrod that they were not expecting the type of journalistic bite they got out of King.

Both interviews below:

2010 elections, Arlen Specter, CNN, David Axelrod, job, Joe Sestak, John King, John King USA, Pennsylvania, Robert Gibbs, White House

homie

“But host John King refused to let either of them off the hook without an answer, asking both to clarify the issue in the interest of public trust.”

Except that he did in the end, didn’t he?
Liberty – Not Redistribution

Something is up with this issue. There is obviously a grey area here and the White House and Sestak don’t want to give details. I’m curious if one of them believes there is a recording or some other witness. Wow….this is getting interesting. Good for CNN to point out that it is a felony.
JohnSimpson

But we must remember that “nothing inappropriate happened.”
JohnSimpson

Funny, this is what Axelrose said:

“When the allegations were made, they were looked into. And there was no evidence of such a thing,” Axelrod said on CNN’s “John King USA.”

Axelrod acknowledged that if White House officials dangled a job in front of Rep. Joe Sestak’s face to keep him away from challenging incumbent Sen. Arlen Specter, that would “constitute a serious breach of the law.”

So now he admits if it did happen, it would be a serious breach of law.

Well, tell us what happened.
http://apostrophejones.com Apostrophe jones

Remember the Obama Administration investigated and cleared itself in the Blago case before the inauguration . They can handle this in-house too . If Ax or Dead-Fish or Barry made the offer to Sestak , they can put themselves on White House Double Secret Probation . Just in case , they can get Stedman to draft up some pardons . That he is familiar with .
MichelleF

I can’t explain it, but every time I hear Ax or Rahmbo talk, I feel like I need a shower.
Munch

The most transparent administration ever, eh?

When are they going to start that?
Barney

Uh oh..this isn’t going to sit well with the brass at the Corrupt News network. Real journalism isn’t supposed to happen there.

King had better polish up the ol’ resume
jrcmi

As I noted in another thread, Obama could have offered Sestak a job like NavySec – with no strings attached. No strings, no crime.

Sestak might have found such a position appealing – he’d worked in the Clinton administration previously – and taken it instead of running for the senate. Obama is free to offer a position to just about anyone. He’s smart enough to know how to go about it in a legal fashion.

I doubt the existence of “secret tapes.” The conversation presumably took place in the White House – a residence that was thoroughly de-bugged after Nixon left it. Any recordings would have been made by the current resident, who is unlikely to release them.

From: http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/05/even_crew_says_sestaks_claim_of_job_offer_is_no_sc.php?ref=tn

” . . . Melanie Sloan, a former federal prosecutor who as the head of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington isn’t known for going on easy public corruption, concurred. ‘There is no bribery case here,” she said. “No statute has ever been used to prosecute anybody for bribery in circumstances like this.’

Sloan added that [Rep. Darrell] Issa’s (R-CA) move [to appoint a special counsel] was more about politics. ‘It’s not at all about whether there was actual criminal wrongdoing,” she said. ‘It’s about how to go after Sestak.’”

I wish conservatives would pursue the far more egregious actions of their beloved Bush and Cheney with the same zeal they attach to this matter.
http://none pyrope

There are no “secret tapes,” the liberals are far too cunning to allow the existence of any evidence trail. There is for us to consider “what they tell us” and “what is most logical.” Transparency? What a joke! Transparency is NOT the way the liberals do business. For that matter, it’s not the way many Republicans to business, either. We, the great unwashed, are merely pawns in their game, and we’d damned well better get used to the idea, because there’s not a damned thing you can do about it!

I believe the -0bama regime offered Sestink a plum to get him to back off against Specterate. I can’t prove it and no one can prove it didn’t happen. The only good thing the American people got out of this is that Specterate is gone–good bye and good riddance to one more weasel. There are a few hundred whom I’d like to see depart with him.
jrcmi

“I can’t prove it and no one can prove it didn’t happen.”

Sestak says he was offered a job. He was there. I’m inclined to believe him. YOU’RE inclined to make fun of him. So much for rewarding honesty.

Specter isn’t the worst of them. McConnell and DeMint can claim that dubious accolade, though many others could be “dishonorable mentions.”

A lot of folks would’ve had more respect for Arlen if he’d stuck with the Repubs and tried to make changes within the party, or even if he’d run as an independent.

Obama ain’t no saint, but he’s an improvement over W and Darth – though an argument could be made that Bush/Cheney were more openly partisan/crooked/despotic/destructive.