Obama: Sorry You Heard About It, Germany

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Near the end of his joint press conference at the White House on Friday with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, a question was asked about whether “personal trust [has] been rebuilt” between the two otherwise allied countries, following last year’s disclosure by NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden that the U.S. had been spying directly on Merkel’s personal cell phone.

President Obama included this in his response [emphasis added]:

OBAMA: …Germany is one of our closest allies and our closest friends, and that’s true across the spectrum of issues — security, intelligence, economic, diplomatic. And Angela Merkel is one of my closest friends on the world stage, and somebody whose partnership I deeply value. And so it has pained me to see the degree to which the Snowden disclosures have created strains in the relationship.

Got that? It was the “Snowden disclosures,” apparently, not the actual U.S. policy of spying on her personal calls, that has “created strains in the relationship”.

So he’s not sorry we spied on her, he’s simply “pained” that we got caught.

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Obama: Sorry You Heard About It, Germany

8 Comments

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8 Responses

  1. 1)
    Dredd said on 5/3/2014 @ 1:46pm PT: [Permalink]

    Well said.

    It is the “republican” (t-bagger) influence on him (“never apologize”) struggling against the cultural impulse to lie.

    Honesty is not an absolute solution (“yes, I am a mass murder”) … stopping it is the solution we are looking for.

  2. 2)
    Soul Rebel said on 5/3/2014 @ 2:17pm PT: [Permalink]

    Merkel’s look says it all.

    “You douche.”

    And I concur. Also with Dredd in the Republican influence

  3. 5)
    Steve Snyder aka WingnutSteve said on 5/3/2014 @ 5:32pm PT: [Permalink]

    It’s almost a given that politicians of all stripes seem to feel worse about being caught than about the inappropriate behavior when they “apologize”.

    It is a given that sanctimonious left wing nuts will just self-righteously brush it off as being the republicans fault.

  4. 6)
    Jeff Solo said on 5/3/2014 @ 8:28pm PT: [Permalink]

    re: #5

    Yeah. Sanctimonious left wing nuts are sooo much worse than sanctimonious right wing nuts.

  5. 7)
    David Lasagna said on 5/4/2014 @ 8:24am PT: [Permalink]

    Steve–What the hell are you talking about? Here’s a little piece where the top Democrat is being an ass, basically being called an ass in the piece, and here are some progressive types in the comments agreeing that he’s being an ass here.

    Then you bop in with your “given”, which again seems pulled right out of your own head, and attribute this “given” to some unknown left wing “others”.

    Please supply evidence of the left wing nuts brushing off Obama being an ass here as the Republicans fault.

  6. 8)
    Dredd said on 5/4/2014 @ 10:21am PT: [Permalink]

    Steve Snyder aka WingnutSteve @5,

    You said:

    It is a given that sanctimonious left wing nuts will just self-righteously brush it off as being the republicans fault.

    Especially when it is the republicans fault.

    Preznit Blush II and his minions were not invited to the 2012 republican convention because they were, as Bill Maher puts it, in “the witness protection program” (Duh Progum).

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?fe...;v=ivLN-AdRluo

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