White House Caught Lying Again

May 22, 2010 (LPAC)—On May 18, EIR correspondent Bill Jones raised the question of White House support for Glass-Steagall to Obama Press Secretary Robert Gibbs at the daily White House press briefing. A destabilized Gibbs replied that he had nothing on it. The dean of the Washington Press corps, Helen Thomas, then followed up EIR's question, asking whether Gibbs' silence was related to the swarm of bankers around town. Gibbs tried to defend himself behind the Dodd bill.

Yesterday, another reporter from the White House press corps again raised Glass-Steagall, in the absence of EIR's Bill Jones, in the following colloquy:

QUESTION: "Okay, the Glass-Steagall amendment, you were going to...

GIBBS: "Glass-Steagall is—the Administration strongly believes that the Volcker rule that limits the size and the scope of banks fully addresses what needs to happen in that area of financial reform.

QUESTION: "So you don't need to re-impose Glass-Steagall because the Volcker rule will take care of it?

GIBBS: "Yes."

But Gibbs got one small detail wrong: When Obama used a subterfuge to prevent the Senate from voting on the Merkley-Levin amendment, written with Volcker, it stuck the stiletto into poor old Paul Volcker and his "rule."