White House press secretary Sean Spicer faced more questions Tuesday afternoon about the reported death of Anwar al-Awlaki’s 8-year-old daughter than President Obama’s spokespeople faced in any briefing during the five years following the droning of the radical cleric’s son.
The young al-Awlaki girl, Nawar, was killed Sunday by U.S. forces during a raid in Yemen. A member of the vaunted Navy SEAL Team 6 was also killed in the clandestine operation.
Like her father, who was killed by a drone strike on Sept. 30, 2011, and her brother, Abdulrahman, who was also killed that year by a drone strike, Nawar was born in the United States.
On Tuesday, the White House press corps showed more interest during a forty-minute presser in the circumstances surrounding her death than it has ever shown in any single briefing for her deceased brother, according to a review of past transcripts.
Time magazine’s Zeke Miller asked Spicer if he could, “confirm that the 8-year-old daughter of al-Awlaki was killed in that strike. And if you can address the killing of an American citizen.”
Later at the same White House press conference, MSNBC’s Hallie Jackson asked, “The president has previously indicated that he would encourage the targeting of the families of terror suspects. Is that still his current position?”
Yet another reporter said Tuesday afternoon: “Hallie’s question was about civilians that are being targeted by the administration in anti-terror raids. And Zeke’s question was about al-Awlakis’ daughter.”
“Is the president willing to kill and target American citizens, even minors, just because they’re family members of terrorists?” the reporter asked.
For reference, Trump said in an interview in 2015 that one way to fight the Islamic State would be to “take out” the family members of known and suspected terrorists.
“The other thing with the terrorists is you have to take out their families, when you get these terrorists, you have to take out their families. They care about their lives, don’t kid yourself. When they say they don’t care about their lives, you have to take out their families,” he said.
The White House press corps’ push for answers Tuesday stands in sharp contrast to how it responded in 2011 to the death of al-Awlaki’s 16-year-old son.
There was no formal White House briefing on Oct. 14, 2011, the day Abdulrahman was incinerated in Yemen by a U.S. drone.
Instead, White House press secretary Jay Carney gaggled with reporters en route to Detroit during a three-day bus tour with President Obama. As news of the American teen’s death didn’t break until the early morning hours of Oct. 15, no one in the press corps asked Carney about the droning on the day that it happened.
There were no White House press briefings during the Oct. 15-16 weekend.
On Oct. 17, 2011, Carney gaggled with reporters again during the president’s bus tour. No one in the pool asked the Obama spokesman that day about the droning.
There were press gaggles again on Oct. 18 and Oct. 19, and no one asked Carney about the droning at either briefing (though one reporter found it worth asking at one of those meetings whether Obama was “enjoying the bus tour”).
On Oct. 20, the White House held its first formal presser in the James S. Brady briefing room since the drone strike that killed Abdulrahman. No one asked about the dead American-born teen.
The closest that the White House came to commenting on the issue that year was when former White House press secretary Robert Gibbs was cornered at a campaign event by “We Are Change” activists. They asked Gibbs how the Obama administration could justify droning a 16-year-old American citizen.
Gibbs, who served then as a spokesman for the Obama re-election campaign, responded, “I would suggest that you should have a far more responsible father if they are truly concerned about the well-being of their children.”
“I don’t think becoming an al Qaeda jihadist terrorist is the best way to go about doing your business,” he added.
It wasn’t until Feb. 5, 2013, one year and three months after Abdulrahman’s death, that someone in the White House press corps asked the administration’s official spokesman about the drone strike, according to a review of briefing transcripts.
ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked: “Well, what about … the drone strike that killed the 16-year-old son of Awlaki. Does he meet that definition of a senior operational leader as outlined in the white paper?”
The White House press corps has raised the issue of the elder al-Awlaki’s death. The issue of the extrajudicial killing of American-born individuals has also come up at official briefings. Reporters even did a background briefing in 2013 with anonymous “senior administration officials” in which Abdulrahman’s death was specifically mentioned.
To be clear, the White House press corps has definitely asked about the death of al-Awlaki’s son, contrary to claims circulated on social media earlier this week.
It just took them a while to get there, and they certainly didn’t move with the speed and urgency that Spicer saw Tuesday.
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This article has been updated.
