The White House still wouldn’t say Monday whether Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser in charge of media communications, will defend his efforts to sell the Iran nuclear deal in testimony before a House committee on Tuesday.
Instead, presidential press secretary Josh Earnest called the House GOP effort to call on Rhodes to appear before the Oversight and Government Reform Committee a “three-ring circus,” and said the White House is still determining whether Rhodes will show up or not.
“What’s true is that previous administrations have been fairly skeptical of these kinds of efforts,” Earnest said, “particularly because this isn’t a whole lot more than just a three-ring circus that Republicans are looking to organize up there.”
“So I don’t have an answer for you,” he continued. “We’re going to continue to review the letter. I think you can sense the not-so-thinly veiled skepticism about this exercise that I’m displaying here now.”
Rhodes angered Republicans by comments he made in New York Times magazine story in which he claimed to have created an “echo chamber” among policy experts and complicit journalists to help sell the Iran deal to Congress.
Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, who chairs the panel, said he wants Rhodes to testify about his role Tuesday and could subpoena him if he refuses, setting up a constitutional showdown between the White House and Congress.
Pressed on whether Rhodes will show up Tuesday, Earnest said Republicans in Congress should hold a hearing to determine whether some of their own members’ statements about the Iran deal were “just wrong” or “badly misinformed.”
“They should obviously set aside a lot of time … [there are] ample witnesses, including those who serve on the committee,” he said.
Last week, after Chaffetz first called for Rhodes to testify, Earnest lashed out Republicans, arguing that many of them, even some members of this panel, have a lot of explaining to do about some of their claims about the Iran deal that he argued are false.
Earnest said several members of the committee, including GOP Reps. Ken Buck, Paul Gosar and Cynthia Lummis, have said Tehran would reap a windfall of hundreds of billions of dollars after the agreement was implemented, something he said has not come to pass.
Earnest also called out Sens. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, and Tom Cotton, R-Ark., for making false statements about the Iran deal, although he said he is unsure if they could testify before a House panel.
