“It’s Not Going To Go Away”: Pelosi Under Pressure
Jun 4, 2009 4 Comments ›› Erik Wong
House Minority Leader John Boehner on Thursday stepped up his calls for Speaker Nancy Pelosi to come clean after she accused the CIA of lying to Congress about Bush-era interrogation techniques employed on terror suspects.
“She’s made this outrageous claim,” he said, asserting that it has undermined the ability of intelligence officials to keep America safe. Pelosi, he said, “believes that it’s just all going to go away. Well, just trust me: It’s not going to go away.”
Boehner and fellow Republicans have vowed to keep the pressure on Pelosi to explain herself ever since she lobbed the accusation last month, insisting that she needs to either back it up with evidence or apologize.
“It’s been three weeks since I asked Speaker Pelosi to back up her allegations that the CIA lied to her or purposely misled her,” Boehner said at a news conference. “Allowing this to hang out there is unconscionable, and I just think the silence from Speaker Pelosi is deafening.”
For her part, Pelosi has tried to deflect the controversy by focusing her weekly press briefings on other subjects. On Thursday, Pelosi again dodged questions from reporters about the CIA.
“I’ve said what I’m going to say on that subject,” she said when asked if she was still receiving intelligence briefings. Pressed further, she acknowledged that she was still receiving them.
But she didn’t respond when asked if anything has changed in the intelligence briefings to convince her that CIA official were being honest.
When Boehner was asked whether Pelosi should continue to receive the briefings, he said, “Well, I don’t know. If it were me and I had doubts about our intelligence officials misleading me, why would I want to sit through these?” he said. “And I’ve got to believe that, if she’s continuing to get her intelligence briefings, she must have some confidence that they’re telling her the truth.”
