[More in the cross-post on the MRC's NewsBusters blog.]
On the 17 September 2014 edition of The Lead, CNN's Jake Tapper tried to pull former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney out of acting like an apologist for President Obama. Tapper turned to his guest, who had just spent an entire segment defending his former boss's ISIS policy, and asked, "What is the difficulty in getting Arab allies to kick in with military assistance? Jay, you don't work for the White House anymore. You can be frank. What is the problem?"
Earlier, as Carney sparred with Bill Kristol of the Weekly Standard over the President's handling of the issue, the former Time journalist did his best impression of Chris Matthews and pointed the finger at former President George W. Bush for the ongoing situation in Iraq and Syria:
JAY CARNEY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: ...The distinction that is being drawn – and I think it is one worth drawing – is between what we did in Iraq – a war that lasted for a very long time; cost us an enormous amount of money; cost a lot of people their lives; and resulted in sustained – you know, terrible injuries for many, many more – and what we were doing now. And one of the reasons to make that decision is because that policy didn't work. It did not work, and it is one of the reasons why we are where we are today.