Josh Earnest

AP: San Bernardino Terrorist Massacre Was a 'Mass Shooting'
By Tom Blumer | December 17, 2015 | 10:04 AM EST

Pity the poor folks at the Associated Press, aka the Administration's Press.

The Obama administration, usually hyper-reluctant to characterize a domestic terrorist attack on U.S. soil as, well, a domestic terrorist attack, has actually had to admit in the face of overwhelming evidence that the San Bernardino massacre on December 2, during which 14 were killed and two dozen injured, was indeed a terrorist attack. Failing to adapt at sufficient speed, the headline writers, tweeters and Obama fans disguised as journalists at the AP, so used to avoiding the T-word at all costs, have made fools of themselves.

Hasselbeck Grills W.H. Spokesman Over Obama Calling Paris a ‘Setback’
By Jeffrey Meyer | November 18, 2015 | 8:55 AM EST

On Wednesday’s Fox & Friends, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck pressed White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest over language used by Secretary of State John Kerry and President Obama following last week’s ISIS terrorist attack in Paris. 

Josh Earnest Excuses Putin's Obama Snub: 'Chaos' Inside UN Building
By Mark Finkelstein | September 29, 2015 | 9:54 AM EDT

Vladimir Putin probably had to wait 20 minutes for an elevator. Yeah, that's the ticket . . . 

Josh Earnest, Barack Obama's spokesman, has excused Vladimir Putin's snub of the President of the United States, in which the Russian strongman turned up 20 minutes late for their lunch at the UN yesterday.  On today's Morning Joe, Earnest lamely defended Vlad's tardiness: "anybody that's been around the UN during the General Assembly knows it's total chaos inside that building, so people ae running late quite frequently. " Right. And if you believe that, we've got an oceanfront condo in Moscow to sell you.

Networks Punt on Report U.S. Intelligence on State of ISIS Fight May Have Been Altered
By Curtis Houck | August 27, 2015 | 1:51 AM EDT

A story that the networks would have almost assuredly covered if George W. Bush was still President, the major broadcast networks failed to cover on Wednesday a front-page New York Times report that a Pentagon inspector general is investigating the possibility that intelligence assessments on the U.S. fight against ISIS may have be altered to reflect a better picture than reality allowed.

Scarborough: Pro-Biden White House Sending Justice Department Message About Hillary?
By Mark Finkelstein | August 25, 2015 | 8:23 AM EDT

If you're Hillary Clinton or one of her supporters, this should make your blood run cold.  On today's Morning Joe, Joe Scarborough said that the unequivocally pro-Biden statement from Obama spox Josh Earnest yesterday not only sent "a strong, strong message to Hillary" but, echoing the Wall Street Journal, "you wonder whether they're sending a message to the Justice Department as well."

Has there ever been anything quite like this in the history of American politics? It's one thing for a president to encourage his veep's presidential ambitions. It's entirely another for a president to put his 800-lb. thumb on the political scales by suggesting to his Justice Department that he'd like it to launch an investigation of the veep's main rival.

CNN's Tapper Shames Earnest For Not Watching Undercover Abortion Videos
By Matthew Balan | August 5, 2015 | 12:31 PM EDT

CNN's Jake Tapper went after Josh Earnest on Monday's The Lead, after the White House press secretary admitted that he hadn't seen any of the undercover Planned Parenthood videos released by the Center for Medical Progress, and was "relying on news reports that I've seen" about the controversy. Tapper pointed out that "the whole video is put up on the website of this anti-abortion group that put them out." When Earnest blasted the pro-life group for their "ideological games," the anchor retorted that "somebody at the White House should maybe watch the videos in full."

Josh Earnest Talks Like Obama Prefers Biden Over Hillary
By Mark Finkelstein | August 3, 2015 | 12:59 PM EDT

On today's Morning Joe, Josh Earnest said that President Obama believes that picking Biden as his VP was the "smartest decision he ever made in politics." Joe Scarborough drew the mischievous-but-logical inference that Obama must thus believe it was smarter than picking Hillary as his Secretary of State.  Though Mika interrupted to say that's not what he meant, Earnest never said boo to counter Joe's interpretation.

Earnest later said that if Biden chooses to run, he could make a "strong" case for his candidacy.  He added that other Dem candidates could make "quite" a strong case. Note the qualifier. And Earnest never paid Hillary the honor of mentioning her by name, just lumping her with "other Democratic candidates" not named Biden. Add in the fact that Joe reported that there is "outrage at the White House" over Hillary's email and foundation foul-ups, and a picture emerges of an Obama jumping towards Joe.  This could get very interesting!

Fox's Harris Faulkner Goes Off After Inane 'Father-Daughter Weekend' Question at Post-Chattanooga WH Briefing
By Tom Blumer | July 20, 2015 | 12:46 AM EDT

On Friday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest held his first press briefing after the massacre of then-four, now-five Americans "at a military recruiting office and a Navy-Marine operations center a few miles apart" in Chattanooga, Tennessee.

A mere three minutes into that briefing, thanks to the Associated Press's Darlene Superville, he was already on another topic: President Obama's upcoming weekend father-daughter outing in New York City. The folks at Fox News's "Outnumbered" show were watching live. Quite understandably, the program's Harris Faulkner took strong exception to Superville's chosen question.

CNN, CNBC and MSNBC Push Infrastructure Funding After Amtrak Accident
By Joseph Rossell | May 13, 2015 | 1:28 PM EDT

At least six people died and many more were injured in a terrible Amtrak accident on the night of May 12, and before the cause had been discovered, multiple cable news networks used the tragedy to make a political point.

Programming on CNN, CNBC and MSNBC all used the accident to claim the government needed to spent more on infrastructure all before National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) investigators made an assessment to determine the cause of the crash.

Josh Earnest: Sherrod Brown Should 'Apologize' to Obama
By Mark Finkelstein | May 13, 2015 | 8:38 AM EDT

If you love the smell of liberal infighting in the morning, today's Morning Joe was must-see TV. The MSM is reluctant to report it, but you might say that a trade war has broken out among liberal Dems, and it's getting personal. A few days ago, criticizing Elizabeth Warren for opposing his TPP trade bill, President Obama said that “the truth of the matter is that Elizabeth is, you know, a politician like everybody else.” Yesterday, Sen. Sherrod Brown, also a TPP opponent, said that Obama had thereby been "direspectful" to Warren, suggesting he had been sexist.

Appearing on today's Morning Joe, Obama spokesman Josh Earnest said that once Brown had a chance to look at his comments, he expected that Brown would "find a way to apologize."

Knock Three Times: Reporter Pounds Earnest for Obama Denunciation of Cartoon Contest
By Tim Graham | May 5, 2015 | 2:22 PM EDT

White House press secretary Josh Earnest held a “gaggle” for reporters on Air Force One on Monday around noon. The questioning on the Islamist shooting outside Dallas came up, with a reporter asking for Obama's reaction, but Earnest’s answer – no act of expression deserves violence – failed to satisfy.

Since the “gaggle” is an untelevised briefing and the White House transcripts traditionally avoid the identity of the reporter, we can only guess which “objective” journalist really, really wanted the cartoon contest denounced by the president:

Fox's James Rosen Questions Earnest on Harry Reid's Romney Rudeness vs. Obama Civility Lectures
By Tim Graham | April 1, 2015 | 10:37 PM EDT

In his remarks dedicating the Edward M. Kennedy Institute on Monday, President Obama imagined how a child would see the replica of the U.S. Senate there and imagine the dialogue as “elevated” and “purposeful.....before she’s old enough to be cynical.” He lamented that party lines or philosophies become “barriers to cooperation or respect.”

On Wednesday, the Washington Free Beacon noted Fox correspondent James Rosen asked White House spokesman Josh Earnest how that matched Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid’s cynical and partisan 2012 strategy of claiming without evidence that Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes: