Thank God America has journalists who aren’t afraid to ask President Obama the tough questions about the brewing scandal knows as “Gunwalker.” [FYI: That's the name given the scheme whereby the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) enabled gun smugglers intent on providing Mexican drug cartels with weapons purchased in the United States.] Univision‘s Jorge Ramos grilled President Obama on the topic with some not-entirely-unpredictable results. Turns out the President of the United States didn’t tell the President of Mexico about the U.S. feds aiding and abetting gun smugglers because he — the president of the United States — didn’t know about it. What’s more, U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder is also doing a passable Sgt. Schultz imitation. I know nothing! Make the jump for the full transcript of the interchange . . .
JR: THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT COMPLAINS THAT THEY WERE NOT INFORMED ABOUT THE “FAST AND FURIOUS” OPERATION. DID YOU AUTHORIZE THIS OPERATION AND WAS PRESIDENT CALDERON PROPERLY INFORMED ABOUT IT?
PBO: Well, first of all I did not authorize it. Eric Holder, the Attorney General, did not authorize it. He’s been very clear that our policy is to catch gun runners and put them into jail. So what he’s done is he’s assigned an I.G., an inspector general, to investigate what exactly happened…
JR: SO WHO AUTHORIZED IT?
PBO: Well, we don’t have all the facts. That’s why the I.G. is in business. To collect the facts.
JR: AND YOU WERE NOT EVEN INFORMED ABOUT IT?
PBO: Absolutely not, this is a pretty big government, the United States government. I got a lot of moving parts. But I want to be very clear, I spoke to President Calderon when he came to visit just a few weeks ago, our policy is to ramp up the interdiction of guns flowing south because that’s contributing to some of the security problems that are taking place in Mexico and what we are doing is trying to build the kind of cooperation between Mexico and the United States that we haven’t seen before. That ensures that we have a comprehensive approach.
I’ve said to President Calderon and I’ve said it publicly, we’ve got obligations. It’s not just Mexico’s problem, it’s also our problem. We got to reduce demand for drugs, which is why even though we got obviously significant deficits; we are allocating 10 billion dollars in our budget to try to reduce demand through prevention programs and education programs.
We have to make sure that we are enforcing the kinds of measures that will stop the flow of guns and cash down south that is helping to fuel these transnational drug cartels. So we’ve initiated excellent cooperation, there may be a situation here in which a serious mistake was made, if that’s the case then we’ll find out and will hold somebody accountable.
JR: MEXICO WAS NOT INFORMED THEN?
PBO: Well, if I wasn’t informed I assure you that Mexico wasn’t either.
Right. Because there’s no way that the ATF would keep the President of the United States and the Attorney General in the dark about the main thrust of its firearms interdiction program—for which they received an extra $200m or so—and tell the Mexicans what they were up to. Because shhhh. It’s a secret!
We can now conclude that President Obama isn’t the ringleader in a large criminal conspiracy perpetuated by a federal law enforcement agency against an ally. I repeat: the buck doesn’t stop there. But this exchange does reveal the Prez and his number one law enforcement guy as disconnected and incompetent.
Now, shall we talk about the cover-up?
dance…dance…dance…plausible deniability…dance…dance…LOOK, A SQUIRREL!…dance…dance…Did you go to an Ivey League school?…dance…dance…HIGH SPEED RAIL!…dance….
I prefer watching Sgt. Schultz do his best impression of the O-dog.
I knew you would like it.
The fact that this made the drudge report is also a huge step towards bringing it out into the light.
Thanks for the heads-up.
Public denial of knowing something does not make one less guilty.
“I didn’t know it was loaded!” Doesn’t make anyone less responsible for the outcome.
Tricky Dick anybody?
The only ones they (you know who they are) are going to pin this on are the agents at the bottom of the totam pole. The people in charge of this fiasco are going to deny all of it and pin it on them. Those in charge of this are going to have long and fruitful carreers.
OK, either Obama or Holder are lying, or someone at ATF authorized an operation with major foreign policy implications and they didn’t clear it at the cabinet level? Why do they still have a job?
Awesome. Now we just need to get these critters up in front of Congress and see who breaks first.
Do you REALLY think that is going to happen in the Senate? And what makes you think The One won’t just ignore the House? After all, they are ALREADY stonewalling Senator Grassley’s requests, and lying to him as well.
The REAL question is “What will “Law Enforcement’ do?” After all, there have already been TWO of their number murdered as a result of this operation. Surely you DO know what would be going on by now if the people behind those murders had been mere “citizens”. The stench is overwhelming.
Lots of doubletalk here. O-dog says he wasn’t “informed” of Gunwalker and he didn’t “authorize” it. Does that mean he and Holder didn’t “know,” as opposed to not being informed? That he and Holder didn’t “approve,” as opposed to authorize? Methinks that POTUS is a very practiced liar in the mold of one William Jefferson Clinton.
I wonder what Obama’s definition of “is” is.
Hmm… if it smells.. looks.. and feels like cow patties then it usually is BS.
ATF has given us Ruby Ridge, Waco and now this. Why do they not stick to one-gun buys in darkened parking lots? The collateral damage is far less.
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There is NO WAY that a subordinate in the DOJ would sign off on this operation WITHOUT clearing it with the Attorney General Eric Holder.
Holder is LYING THROUGH HIS TEETH!
The AG, the Director of ATF and the supervisors that approved this op all need be FIRED and to pay a long visit to Leavenworth.
Obama is lying when asked if he knew anything about it. Look at his body language, it is so obvious.
Hey, I thought it was legal to buy guns at gun shows without background checks. Every gun show I’ve been to, I could walk out with as many guns as I had money to buy so where is the problem with ATF letting that happen. We’d better be careful what we wish for – tighter controls at gun shows – is that what you are calling for?
Looking into this case of “fast and furious” I see document dates with 2008. What if this project was another leftover from the prior administration? Who do we point the finger at then?
Then he still shut have known about it and shut it down !
if you run through a 60 zone doing 100 because you didnt see the sign you still get punished !
Unfortunately for Obama, he is ultimately responsible for what goes on involving the US government. Whether he knew about it or not makes no difference, he’s in charge therefore responsible.
Before y’all start layin’ all the blame on Obama — and I KNOW that many of ya are rabid Obama haters — how about we look into WHEN this gun-running deal was actually authorized, and WHO actually authorized it. I’m willing to bet my life that it was a done deal long before Obama put his name on the ballot back in 2007. Here’s a hint fer ya: G.W.Shrub and/or the Right-wing CONservative “Law & Order” Republicans.
Good point.
typical liberal response , blame everything on bush !
Altough government agencies run slow i doubt it would have taken them from 2007 to 2010 to actually carry out the operation !
So UNLESS you have proof to the fact that this was authorized by bush and you can provide this proof it will still be obama who is on the hook for it !
Lets look at this closer , the root causes for the economic meltdown were laid by DUMYCRATS long before GW ever took office, yet it blew up under bush and so he got the blame, this just comes with the territory, on who s watch it happens gets the blame just like whoever will be in office when obamacare blows up will get the blame for the fallout !
before you guys start laying into the democrats, take the time to research what you are ranting about. when president clinton was in office he worked his ass off to make a surplus of money. when 9/11 happened that surplus was gone after a week when we started bombing afganistan so blame that one on the republiCAN’TS.
Obama approved this, much in the same way Reagan approved the Iran/Contra guns for hostages debacle. I am sure all of you conservatives were sure Reagan would never do such a thing. It had to be good ole boy Olly North all by his lonesome making all the decisions with no one giving any orders at all. Hypocrisy is over whelming.
main difference is that the Iran contra deal didnt kill any americans !
Give me a break !
his nose is growing longer every minute , nobody tells me that the ATF without proper authorization from highest levels , lets gun runners get to mexico with high powered weapons !
Obama and holder both knew about it and im sure sooner or later, hopefully before the elections , the proof will surface !
Knowing or not knowing about it either way it reflects really bad on him and his leadership !
If he didnt know about it then it means that the inmates are running the asylum so to speak and he has no control over his subordinates or what they are doing, which is just as bad as knowing about it or authorizing it !
Why dont we start impeachment procedures and let congress sort it out ?
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