McConnell Takes Aim At White House Terror Spin

Mike Gonzalez / February 03, 2010

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) today swung hard against a public-relations campaign by the Obama Administration to clean up its tattered image over its handling of the war on terrorists, and especially Nigerian terrorist Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.

In a major address at The Heritage Foundation, McConnell gave a point-by-point refutation of all of the administration’s failures in this area, from the decision to close the detention facilities at Guantanamo Bay to the botched attempt to try some terrorists in New York. But McConnell took special aim at the administration decision to treat Abdulmutallab as a common criminal after the al Qaeda terrorist tried to blow up a plane over Detroit on Christmas Day.

It was the first significant Republican response to a concerted effort by the White House to catch up to yet another looming PR disaster. The White House mop-up effort came after intensified criticism, even from Democrats in Congress, of the administration’s decision to read Abdulmutallab Miranda rights 50 minutes into his interrogation on Christmas Day. (more…)