Tag Archives: Robert Gibbs

Outgoing White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today once again dodged Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson’s questions about the president’s 1996 position on same-sex marriage. One gets the sense that Gibbs is so ready to be through with this job.

As we saw last year in Iran, the roles of Twitter, Facebook and YouTube cannot be underestimated in these things.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs today nearly cut his press conference short after Washington Blade reporter Chris Johnson pressed him about the president’s 1996 support of same-sex marriage, a position Obama later reversed. Gibbs resumed taking questions after other reporters complained. Johnson has been relentless on LGBT issues with Gibbs for the last couple of weeks.

The same reporter who earlier this week grilled White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about DOMA today returned with similar questions about ENDA. With a similarly waffle-filled result.

Today White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said that a legislative overturn of DOMA is “inordinately challenging given the current make-up of Congress.” No kidding. Gibbs dodged a reporter’s question on whether the president regrets not moving on DOMA when the Democrats controlled the House and instead referenced the “monumental achievement” of the repeal of DADT.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs announced today that he will resign, effective next month, to begin working on President Obama’s 2012 reelection campaign. A veteran of Obama’s 2008 presidential campaign, Gibbs would bring an experienced hand to Obama’s bid for a new term. His departure is among several looming staff changes as Obama regroups for the second half of …

Some of the questions are from the Washington Blade’s Chris Johnson and the Advocate’s Kerry Eleveld.

The study is set to be released tomorrow. Wonk Room has the transcript: GIBBS: I believe the President has seen part of [the report]…I think the President strongly believed that this was an issue that can and should be solved legislatively, encourage the Senate to act legislatively on the Defense Authorization bill and particularly on changing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. …

The Department of Justice has filed a brief announcing their intent to appeal the reinstatement of Major Margaret Witt, whose DADT-related discharge was overturned by a federal court in September. Chris Geidner reports at Metro Weekly: With today’s filing, DOJ stated in a docketing statement required to be filed with the Notice of Appeal that the principal issue to be …

Igor Volsky has the details at Wonk Room: This afternoon, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs listed repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell as a priority for the lame duck session after the Thanksgiving recess and reiterated the now oft-repeated warning that if Congress fails to lift the ban, the matter could be decided by the courts. “Do this legislatively, …

The Palm Center has launched Enormous Consequences, a website created in reaction to Press Secretary Robert Gibbs’ recent statement about the overturn of DADT. Above is a clock with the running total of hours during which gays have been allowed to serve openly, as well as a chart with the number of reported consequences of the new policy. The Palm …

AmericaBlog’s Joe Sudbay directs us to this clip of Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld questioning White House press secretary Robert Gibbs about the president’s plans regarding DADT. Gibbs responds that the president will be “actively involved” in DADT’s overturn during the coming lame duck session of Congress.

“He knows Fox’s talking points and little else.”

“First of all, lets be extremely clear. Public Option was not a fringe issue. The desire for human rights and freedom for the American LGBT community is clearly rooted in the Constitution of the United States. Wanting our young not to die in useless foreign wars doesn’t appear to me to be radical. Not wanting 14% of America’s children to …

Press secretary Robert Gibbs said today that the White House remains committed to repealing DADT, but will not push for action until the Pentagon completes its repeal implementation study, which is expected to be concluded in December. Reporter Kerry Eleveld: “So that rules out legislative action this year?” Gibbs: “The House and the Senate are obviously different branches of government. …

Advocate reporter Kerry Eleveld grills press secretary Robert Gibbs about the DOJ’s most recent brief in defense on DADT, which cited a 1993 quote from Colin Powell.

Recently we’ve seen been nonstop support for the repeal of DADT from the upper echelons of the armed services. The top commanding general in Iraq says he thinks everyone – gay and straight – should be allowed to serve in the military “as long as we are still able to fight our wars.” The comment by Gen. Raymond Odierno (Oh-dee-AIR-no) …

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs got a laugh when he let reporters see the notes on his hand today. Gibbs’ move was a jab at Sarah Palin, who was shown to have written notes on her hand at a speech at the Tea Party convention Saturday after making an implicit criticism of the president for using a TelePrompTer. Gibbs …