How The White House Smothered The News Of Obama's Trip To Afghanistan

How The White House Smothered The News Of Obama's Trip To Afghanistan: White House: "We can't do anything about Drudge"

In an interview with BuzzFeed, National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor reflected on his day quashing reports of the President's travel.

"The TOLONews report was inaccurate," Vietor said, "so it was 100 percent true and easy to tell people that. When people say 'is he in transit' that's a different story."

"The way this works is a small group of press are read into the fact of this trip ahead of time," Vietor said." "For operational security reasons it can’t be public until they land. There is a firm agreement between news agencies and the White House not to report until the plane is on the ground."

Vietor said the arrangement with reporters is standard operation procedure, though news of the trip leaking four hours early is anything but.

Asked about The Drudge Report's decision to keep swapping links, Vietor replied, "There is nothing you can do about Drudge."


See original work for more on this and other stories.