White House Under Fire for Sending Unsolicited Emails Promoting Health Care Bills
by Steven Ertelt
LifeNews.com Editor
August 14, 2009
Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) — The White House is coming under fire for sending an unknown number of Americans unsolicited emails promoting the pro-abortion health care bills in Congress. Numerous readers of LifeNews.com have complained that they have received emails coming from a top Obama staffer promoting the legislation.
While President Barack Obama was in Montana promoting the pro-abortion government-run health care plan to willing listeners, some who don’t want the White House’s spin are getting it anyway.
The White House maintains a massive email list as part of its efforts to promote Obama’s agenda and senior adviser David Axelrod used the list to send out emails to people on Thursday promoting the bills.
The emails asked people to help Obama rebut criticism of the legislation, which pro-life advocates explain includes taxpayer-funded abortions and could promote assisted suicide and health care rationing.
Axelrod wrote that opponents of the bills are relying on tactics including "viral e-mails that fly unchecked and under the radar, spreading all sorts of lies."
"So let’s start a chain of e-mail of our own," he said.
Some of the people who got emails and notified LifeNews.com said they had never sent an email to the White House before and don’t know how they were placed in Obama’s database.
Earlier today, Fox News reporter Major Garrett got into a testy exchange with Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs over the unsolicited emails.
Fox News asked Gibbs about the people who received the emails and Gibbs eventually agreed to have the White House look over the list and see why Americans received them.
Gibbs said he couldn’t know why people got the emails because he doesn’t have "omnipotent clarity." He added he would have to see the emails to know more about why the people received them mistakenly.
Pressed for a further explanation, Gibbs couldn’t respond. The following is the testy exchange, according to Fox News:
Gibbs said "Well, I hesitate to give you an answer because you might impugn the motives of the answer."
"Why would you say that?" Garrett asked incredulously.
"Because of the way you phrased your follow up. I’d have to look at what you got, Major. I appreciate the fact that I have omnipotent clarity as to what you’ve received in your e-mail box today," Gibbs said.
"You don’t have to have omnipotent clarity. You don’t have to impugn anything," Garrett fired back. "I’m telling you what I got: e-mails from people who said I never asked anything from the White House."
Ending the exchange, Gibbs said, "Let me go someplace else that might be constructive."
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