White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest’s Awful Year in 5 Clips

White House Spokesman has to be one of the hardest jobs on Earth. You have to defend your boss – the President – no matter how bad he’s screwed up. And with Obama as President, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest has had his hands full.

It’s no wonder there are so many hilarious moments in the history of White House press conferences. Here are the top 5 worst moments for current White House Spox Josh Earnest from 2014:

5. Don’t Drone Me, Bro

After the release of the now infamous CIA Torture Report, the Obama Administration had some explaining to do. Specifically, why Obama thinks he has some sort of moral authority to condemn torture while he bombs innocent civilians – including American citizens – without charge or trial.

Earnest went to default mode: Don’t answer the question! Talk about something else!

Fox’s Ed Henry put White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest on the spot today about why the Obama administration believes it has the “moral authority” to condemn torture when they’re overseeing drone strikes.

Henry said that drone strikes have ended up killing innocents, so he asked, “How do you have moral authority when innocent civilians are killed by drones?” Earnest argued there’s a difference because “there is significant care taken” to reduce civilian casualties.

The Fox reporter pointed out that such “care” doesn’t stop it from happening anyway. Earnest then went on a bit of a tangent about the United States being more morally righteous than the terrorists, and pointed out that some of these individuals have to be taken out because they’ve “targeted local populations.”

4. Jon Stewart Body Slam

President Obama nominated a completely unqualified Hollywood donor for Ambassador to Hungary, a vital country considering recent tensions with Russia. When asked by a reporter if the nominee’s massive campaign donations had something to do with it, Earnest really fumbled.

Only Jon Stewart can do this response justice:

After he failed to find anything funny to say about the “utterly depressing” Eric Garner case at the top of last night’s Daily Show, Jon Stewart turned to a lighter topic: the confirmation of two new U.S. ambassadors to Argentina and Hungary. But as he — and the rest of the press quickly learned — their qualifications leave a little something to be desired.

While soap opera producer Colleen Bradley Bell and political consultant Noah Bryson Mamet don’t have any particular interest in Hungary or Argentina, respectively, they did each raise large sums of money for President Barack Obama’s re-election campaign. But when ABC News’ Jonathan Karl asked White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest if that fact may have played into their nominations, all he would say was, “Frankly, I was not part of this decision-making process.”

“What?! You can’t do that!” Stewart exclaimed. “That is the greatest thing I’ve ever seen the president’s press secretary do. His entire job — his only job — is built around trying not to go, ‘Hey, look, I just  work here.’ But that’s what he did.”

3. WH Press Secretary: The President Lied!

After Obama’s unconstitutional executive amnesty, the President gave a speech to pro-illegal immigration activists in Chicago. Obama was heckled for not doing enough, so he defended his actions and said, “I just took action to change the law!”

Of course, Earnest was asked about this, basically saying that the President didn’t really mean what he said. Wow. See it here.

MAJOR GARRETT, CBS NEWS: Tuesday when the president was getting some blowback from the audience in Chicago during his immigration remarks. At one point he said, “I just took action to change the law.” Did the president mis-speak in a moment of passion to try to calm the crowd or does he believe — do you fundamentally believe he has taken action to change the law?

JOSH EARNEST:  I think he was speaking colloquially.  What he has put in place – meaning that obviously, well, no, meaning that the – it is the responsibility of the United States Congress to pass the laws.  And it is the responsibility of the executive branch to implement and enforce them.  So, my point is –

MAJOR GARRETT:  So what about when he says, “I just took action to change the law.”

JOSH EARNEST:  Well, I think the impact of the law certainly has been changed, on, in terms of the way that it effects the millions of people who are in this country.  And I think that’s what the president was alluding to.  Again, I think that he was speaking colloquially – say that five times fast!

2.  Dropping Bombs Isn’t War?

As most Americans know, Obama decided—on his own and without Congress—to start a new war in Iraq against ISIS.

Shockingly, Josh Earnest told reporters that dropping bombs “isn’t war,” and couldn’t describe what “destroy the enemy” meant without his Webster’s dictionary!

1. Josh Earnest’s First Day

It’s hard to tell sometimes when government bureaucrats are lying or just totally incompetent.

Josh Earnest‘s first briefing as the newly-minted White House Press Secretary ended on a tense note when a few reporters confronted him for seemingly contradicting his own response to an earlier question.

As Earnest began to depart the podium, several reporters including RealClearPolitics Alexis Simendinger laid into the press secretary for denying that the White House had any calls to read out between the president and foreign leaders regarding the Iraq crisis, before proceeding to say there was a call with Vladimir Putin.

Clearly peeved at the secretary’s slight, Simendinger said “You got asked earlier,” prompting Earnest’s response that she does not “have to get all exercised about this.”

Another reporter in the room backed her colleague, telling Earnest: “She’s not getting exercised, she’s telling you what it is.”

“We asked you a question,” Simendinger charged. “You should answer the question.”

“I did,” he claimed.

“No, you didn’t,” the RCP reporter shot back. “You said you had no calls to read out.”

“I was asked if the president had questions with world leaders about the situation in Iraq,” he defended himself, suggesting that her question didn’t have anything to do with Putin.

“Oh, so should we go around a map every day with you?” Simendinger replied before Earnest finally departed.

Just imagine years of JOSHING EARNESTLY with our pro-Obama press.  What torture!  I am surprised that Josh hasn’t called the United Nations for help!

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