By Brad Friedman on 5/3/2014, 1:30pm PT  

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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