House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Friday said she stands by her accusation that the Central Intelligence Agency misled Congress about its use of waterboarding on terror suspects.
Pelosi shut down a chorus of inquiries from reporters at her weekly news conference, many of whom packed into the room hoping to hear the speaker elaborate on her charge last week that the CIA lied about their interrogation tactics.
But she had little to say on the topic.
“I have made the statement I’m going to make on this,” Pelosi said. “I have nothing more to say on this, I stand by that comment.”
Pelosi steered the focus of the news conference onto the Democratic agenda, including a critical energy reform bill that has been approved in committee. Pelosi came to the news conference flanked by House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer, D-Md., and other leaders and said the press conference was to serve as a wrap up before the week-long Memorial Day recess.
Pelosi said further talk about the CIA matter would only distract Congress from important legislative issues.
“What we are doing is staying on our course and not be distracted from it in this distractive mode. We’re going forward in a bipartisan way for jobs, health care, and energy for our country. And on the subject that you asked, I’ve made the statement that I’m going to make. I won’t have anything more to that about it.”
Pelosi has been bombarded with criticism by the GOP and hounded by the press since last Thursday, when she tried to explain to reporters what the CIA told her about waterboarding during a 2002 briefing. Pelosi said at last week’s news conference that the CIA misled her in 2002 by saying they were not actually using waterboarding, when in fact they were.
When pressed by a reporter, Pelosi took it a step further and said the agency lied.
Republicans have turned Pelosi’s words into a political weapon, with a little help from the Obama Administration, which did Pelosi no favors by greenlighting a public rebuke of the speaker in a conciliatory letter to CIA workers issued last week by the agency’s director, Leon Panetta. Panetta said the CIA was truthful in its briefings to Congress, contradicting Pelosi.
On Friday, Republicans introduced a resolution calling for a bipartisan investigation into her accusation, but it was defeated by Democrats.
Reporters Friday continued to press Pelosi on the flap, even after she declined to say more. One reporter asked Pelosi as she walked out of the room after the news conference, if she was aware the Rep. Steve King (R-Iowa) has asked for her security clearance to be revoked.
Pelosi said nothing and kept on walking.
