(The video is at the bottom of this post.)
First, Hastert outright lied during his press conference. It is simply amazing that GOP leaders are still trying to downplay the severity of this scandal. More on that below.
I cannot believe they chose this as the back drop. Check out the terror-ticker at the bottom of the screen. I also love how CNN posted the word "Live" at the top of the screen to help the viewers distinguish between Hastert and the dead.
Some snippets from Hastert's press conference this morning:
REPORTER: How satisfied are you as to how your staff has handled this scandal so far and whether anyone should resign in your office.Excuse me? We have numerous members of Congress saying you were informed personally about this matter - so, it's cute to be talking about how your staff handled this and how you only found out about this last Friday. You were informed years ago. (I'm sure you're really dedicated to finding out who really killed Nicole, aren't you OJ Hastert?)
HASTERT: Well I, uh, you know, look, this, I understand my, I have, understood what my staff told me, uh and uh I think from that response they've handled it as well as uh they should. However, in 20/20 hindsight probably you can do everything a little bit better....
I didn't think anybody at any time in my office did anything wrong. I found out about these revelations last Friday, that is the first information I had about it.
The problem we have to do today is, you know, this didn't happen under our wa [Hastert catches himself mid-word, then continues] while pages were in Washington. It happened after these people left, in my understanding, left the page program, at least the ones we're dealing with now, left the program and they were contacted after they left the program.
Secondly, this didn't happen under you watch? It only happened outside Washington, so the implication is that somehow it didn't happen under your nose? That's a lie. We already know that your staff was informed numerous times, and you were informed numerous times, that Foley was getting inappropriately close to the 16 year old pages WHILE HE AND THE PAGES WERE ON THE JOB TOGETHER. That is an utter lie to suggest that the untoward behavior only happened after the pages left Washington, so thus it didn't take place under your watch. The pages were warned to stay away from Foley in 2001 UNDER YOUR WATCH. An utter outright lie.
Moving on, we also know for a fact that your staff was informed by several members of Congress and by several congressional staffers, about this matter. We even know that your staff was involved in talking to Foley about this matter. You're now trying to claim that your staff never told you for six years that a member of your leadership was a child sex predator, but that's apparently okay because you can't find anything wrong with how your staff handled this?
Here's the actual video of the Hastert graveyard press conference - it's only 3 minutes long.
