While President Barack Obama teed off for another round of golf on Martha's Vineyard Thursday, officials from his administration were having to parse and untwist and walk back the statements he made two weeks ago on the U.S. government not exchanging money for the release of hostages being held by Iran.
"We do not pay ransom for hostages," the president said on Aug. 4. "We didn't here, and we won't in the future."
Alas, the State Department spokesman who was sent out Thursday to, sort of, tell the truth was the same official who had tweeted the day before Obama spoke that "reports of link between prisoner release & payment to Iran are completely false."
Two days ago, spokesman John Kirby admitted the payment was used as "leverage" to free the hostages, and, by golly, "we make no apologies" for doing so. "To the degree there was a quid pro quo, [it] was: They got their principal back, and we got a much more advantageous payment schedule."
He was referring to $400 million paid by Iran to the United States for arms in 1979, a deal that was quelled. Obama had said as part of a side deal to the nuclear negotiations with Iran last year, the U.S. agreed to return the money. In another side deal, he said, Iran agreed to free the prisoners. That the money was delivered on the same day the hostages were released was a big, fat, coincidence.
"It's been interesting to watch this story surface. There wasn't a secret," the president lectured curious reporters two weeks ago. "We were completely open with everybody about it, and it is interesting to me how suddenly this became a story again."
When The Wall Street Journal continued to get details that on the fateful, totally coordinated day the money was not paid until the hostages were released, the administration was caught.
"In basic English," one reporter asked Kirby on Thursday, being sure he understood the admission, "you're now saying you wouldn't give them $400 million in cash until the prisoners were released, correct?"
"That's correct," the State Department flack said.
With that exchange, the Obama shelf of whoppers - filled with "if you like your health plan ," no such thing as radical Islamic terrorism, the Benghazi deaths were caused by a video and what would happen to Syria's Bashar Assad if he crossed a red line - just got more crowded.