Obama’s original statement was (should have been) uncontroversial and needed no clarification. I don’t know exactly what “No, Jon” means in this context–there’s a lot of crosstalk and the very next second Earnest says the president has acknowledged in other statements that the deli was targeted because it was Jewish–but Earnest assing up a presser is irrelevant to what Obama said.
Earnest followed up with this tweet (as I noted above): “Our view has not changed. Terror attack at Paris Kosher market was motivated by anti-Semitism. POTUS didn’t intend to suggest otherwise.”
So Terr is making hay about crosstalk during a presser.
Does anyone have a recording of the actual exchange, or a longer transcript?
Cutting it off after “No, Jon No, Jon” really seems very odd and possibly purposefully taking the exchange out out context. Presumably Ernest said something to clarify what he was trying to say after contradicting Jon.
For example it could have been
Earnest: No, Jon. No, Jon. I totally agree, the deli was targeted because it was Jewish, I was just pointing out that these terrorists seemed to have no qualms with killing non-Jews as well.
The question was asked and answered earlier in the presser:
Later on, Jon Karl asks again:
For greater context, here is a video of the exchange with Jon Karl (begins at 1:15). Basically, when he says “No Jon”, he is cutting him off and moving on to the next reporter (Ed).
And Terr gets played for a fool by the right-wing media once again…
They must just love to watch all these legs jerk when they pull on the string.
Wrong. Just because they tried to cover their ass with later twitters doesn’t mean that the original comments were not ridiculous.
Watch out. Someone from the Obama Muslim secret police might show up at your door and throw you in a FEMA reeducation camp with all the people who have the true knowledge of the Benghazi Scandal and put you to work making pine coffins for all those who don’t make it past the Obamacare Death Panels.
I bet you think you’re witty.
How about the fact that you misinterpreted the “No”, which was a dismissal of the question and not an answer?
Josh Earnest misspoke/screwed up/babbled and was called out on that fact. The WH was then forced to cover for Earnest. SNAFU.
He lives by his wits. Half a living is better than nothing. 
LOL… so the right-wing screaming is because the press secretary had a lousy press conference? Surprising to see you on our side and not Terr’s on this one.
Man, they have this scandal nailed. Absolute dead certain lock this time. More of a lock even than Sarah Palin’s Presidential prospects. This time they’re going to be right!!!
Granted, the press secretary could have done a better job explaining. But how is it so difficult to understand that the shootings were both anti-Semitic and random.
Yes, the shooter went to the Jewish Quarter, so it seems a given he was hoping to kill some Jews. But to paraphrase Woody Allen*, “Did he happen to say which Jews?”
He could have chosen any shop in the Quarter to find Jews. He chose a deli. Maybe he was hungry (gruesomely, he did make himself a sandwich right after the shooting). There actually were non-Jews in that deli (like the worker who saved people).
So he did shoot people at random, didn’t he? Especially as compared to the Charlie Hebdo attack, which had specific people as targets.
- Broadway Danny Rose:
Mia Farrow: “Angelina once predicted I would marry a Jew”
Woody Allen: “Really? Did she happen to say which Jew?”
With Obama it’s just one scandal after another. Like Russian dolls… will we ever reach the teeny-tiniest of all?
From the transcript, it’s obvious what Obama (and by extension Earnest) meant:
The people killed in the deli were not individually targeted, i.e. they were random people in a deli.
As Earnest clearly explained, they were random targets in a specifically-targeted location.
This is a waste of time.
Sounds about right to me. People misspeak. WHen the record is corrected, I’m good.
Smile. Like. Thank you.
This is just getting more and more ridiculous. Obama is hardly perfect; surely you people can find actual things to complain about.
They’re getting desperate. Time is running out. President Blackenstein is making them look like fools. If there was a mercy rule in Presidential politics, the game would have been called several years ago. It’s like 250-0 Obama.
Prediction: Before the end of this week, Fox News will have tied the (real) Little League Baseball scandal with the Chicago team to Obama (if it hasn’t happened already.)