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Press corps dean grills White House over Israeli raid
Helen Thomas, the 90-year-old dean of the White House Press Corps and a Hearst Newspapers columnist, gave White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs a hard time at a press briefing on Tuesday.
“Our initial reaction to this flotilla massacre, deliberate massacre, an international crime, was pitiful. What do you mean you regret when something should be so strongly condemned? And if any other nation in the world had done it, we would have been up in arms. What is the sacrosanct, iron-clad relationship where a country that deliberately kills people and boycotts -- and we aid and abet the boycott?” Thomas asked Gibbs.
Below is the rest of exchange of remarks between Thomas, who has covered the White House under every president since John F. Kennedy, and Gibbs.
Gibbs: Look, I think the initial reaction regretted the loss of life as we tried and still continue to try to gather the relevant --
Thomas: Regret won’t bring them back.
Gibbs: Nothing can bring them back, Helen. We know that for sure because I think if you could, that wouldn’t be up for debate. We are -- we believe that a credible and transparent investigation has to look into the facts. And as I said earlier, we’re open to international participation in that investigation.
Thomas: Why did you think of it so late?
Gibbs: Why did we think of --
Thomas: Why didn’t you initially condemn it?
Gibbs: Again, I think the statements that were released speak directly to that.
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