The Oval Office Rug Saga Continues: No Names, Just Quotes!

The saga of the Oval Office rug continues. On Sunday, after WaPo reported that the new Oval Office rug, which contains famous presidential quotes and one from Martin Luther King, may have wrongly attributed the MLK quote I wondered how much time would be spent on this in today’s White House briefing. Answer: two minutes (alternately: too much).

Here’s how Gibbs explained the mistake. I will spare you the stumbling part where he pointed out that many people attribute that quote to Martin Luther King, and get to the big reveal which is: There are no names on the carpet. Just quotes. Said Gibbs: “Nobody gets credit on the rug. It’s just the quotes.”

The names were presumably added to the press release about the quotes, which is where the mistake came about. Except it’s not really a mistake since the quote on the rug is a direct quote from Martin Luther King, who at the time was paraphrasing Theodore Parker. Got that? The rug stays. Upshot? More people now know who Theodore Parker is. Watch below.

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