Journalists Hammer Biden Administration for Claiming Reporter Completely Made Up Quotes for Unflattering Story
The Biden administration is under fire from journalists who are outraged over an NSC spokesperson’s claim that a HuffPost reporter completely fabricated quotes in a recent article.
In a piece for HuffPost titled A Top Biden Official Is Pushing An Urgent Post-Gaza Plan That’s Alarming Some Insiders, Huffpost’s Akbar Shahid Ahmed reported that Brett McGurk — a top aide to President Joe Biden — is facing internal criticism over 90-day plan to reconstruct Gaza once the fighting stops. Ahmed quoted three unnamed U.S. officials who argued “McGurk’s suggestions reflect the Biden administration’s pre-Oct. 7 approach of treating the Palestinians as an afterthought.”
“It misses the point,” Ahmed quoted one official as saying of McGurk’s plan.
“They really think they can utilize the reconstruction portion of this to ease the pain of normalizing with Saudi,” said another official, according to Ahmed. “They want to show that Israel is giving more than they have before.”
But Adrienne Watson — spokesperson for the National Security Council — categorically denied the story in a response posted by Ahmed on X/Twitter, and flat out accused Ahmed of inventing his quotes.
“This story is not true. Quotes attributed to US officials are made up,” Watson said.
Ahmed stood by his reporting and denounced the attack on his work.
“A deeply offensive, baseless lie that echoes the Trump admin’s approach to the press,” he wrote on social media.
Other journalists came to Ahmed’s defense and slammed the Biden administration for its attack on his work:
Akbar is a brilliant, careful and thoughtful reporter. To even insinuate that he would make up quotes is beyond the pale. https://t.co/Ua82fxBBLF
— Alex Ward (@alexbward) January 14, 2024
.@AkbarSAhmed is a stellar reporter whose coverage of the conflict has been essential reading. It’s one thing to dispute a story or aspects of it, but to suggest a reporter is making up quotes is a serious accusation and not in any way reflective of Akbar’s professionalism. https://t.co/cChfx2V8Sl
— Sabrina Siddiqui (@SabrinaSiddiqui) January 14, 2024
Truly bizarre response from the administration to @AkbarSAhmed‘s enlightening story on Brett McGurk’s plan for post-war Gaza. https://t.co/jYjTtSCzHt
— Evan Hill (@evanhill) January 14, 2024
.@AkbarSAhmed is a serious, talented & thoughtful reporter who has been absolutely crushing this story. https://t.co/7A1vYHkFO0
— Felicia Schwartz (@felschwartz) January 14, 2024
This is a new escalation, and in all my years interviewing US officials I’ve never seen anything like it. The White House is smearing a great reporter @AkbarSAhmed without basis, simply because he was able to get the scoop on Brett McGurk’s frightening postwar plans for Gaza 🧵 https://t.co/u6VdFEsgBU
— Shadi Hamid (@shadihamid) January 14, 2024
Utterly embarrassing, gross and unprofessional response from @NSC_Spox https://t.co/kGdRIpLwZ5
— Chris Hayes (@chrislhayes) January 14, 2024
At what pt does Biden Admin take charge of disaster in Gaza and stop allowing Netanyahu and his extreme right govt play them like a fiddle? It’s enormously damaging to Biden, and US in general. Treating press like this is clanging alarm that they can’t even get msg-ing straight. https://t.co/s7fmfuMt71
— Bill Carter (@wjcarter) January 14, 2024
A Biden administration source with knowledge of the dispute chalked up the incident as a misunderstanding between the White House and HuffPost. They say Watson was not commenting on every anonymous official quoted in the piece, but about the characterization of a top secret document written by McGurk referring to a Biden “victory tour” — a document which the source denies exists.
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