Check out this White House briefing from September 29, 2003.
In it, we see that McClellan said two years ago that Bush "knows" that Karl Rove wasn't involved in the leak. That means that Bush either relied on McClellan's public statements that Rove had told McClellan he wasn't involved, and Rove lied, or that Bush talked to Rove and Rove lied to the president as well, or that Bush knew the truth and permitted his staff to lie. In the best case scenario for Bush, Rove lied to White House staff about the scandal and let them go public with that lie. How does the president tolerate this?
And more importantly, are we to believe that since that time the president never called Karl into his office to find out WHY Karl lied to McClellan and why Karl let McClellan say publicly that "the president knows Karl Rove wasn't involved"? Think about that. Rove's lie made the White House issue a statement that the president himself "knows" Rove wasn't involved. How and why does President Bush tolerate someone who did that, now that we know the truth from Rove's own lawyer, that Rove was the leaker?
Apparently lying to top aides of the president and tricking those aides into publicly making a fool of the president, and a liar of him as well, is no big deal to George Bush.
Q So the President of the United States doesn't know whether or not this classified information was divulged, and he is only getting his information by reading the media?
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm sorry?
Q He does not know whether or not the classified information was divulged here, and he's only getting his information from the media?
MR. McCLELLAN: No, we don't know -- we don't have any information that's been brought to our attention beyond what we've seen in the media reports. I've made that clear.
Q All right. Let me just follow up. You said this morning, "The President knows" that Karl Rove wasn't involved. How does he know that?
MR. McCLELLAN: Well, I've made it very clear that it was a ridiculous suggestion in the first place. I saw some comments this morning from the person who made that suggestion, backing away from that. And I said it is simply not true. So, I mean, it's public knowledge. I've said that it's not true. And I have spoken with Karl Rove --
Q But how does --
MR. McCLELLAN: I'm not going to get into conversations that the President has with advisors or staff or anything of that nature; that's not my practice.
Q But the President has a factual basis for knowing that Karl Rove --
MR. McCLELLAN: I said it publicly. I said that --
Q But I'm not asking what you said, I'm asking if the President has a factual basis for saying -- for your statement that he knows Karl Rove --
MR. McCLELLAN: He's aware of what I've said, that there is simply no truth to that suggestion. And I have spoken with Karl about it.
