Press Grills White House on AP Scandal

AP? IRS? Benghazi? How does it feel to be compared with Nixon? White House spokesman Jay Carney fielded questions from a rowdy group of reporters today on the bevy of controversies facing the administration. For the most part, he tried to bat them down. He refused to answer questions on the Department of Justice’s seizure of Associated Press phone records, saying he couldn’t comment on an investigation. “The president is a strong defender of the First Amendment,” he told reporters. (He used the word “unfettered” an awkward number of times.) Carney also called Benghazi a “political sideshow and a political effort to exploit a tragedy.” Anyone comparing Obama with Nixon “needs to check their history,” he announced.