Helen Thomas Makes a Scene

There are not official transcript for the White House morning gaggle, so we rely on talkradionews.com's summary for an account of a rather contentious exchange between Scott McClellan and the unsinkable Helen Thomas, in which McClellan tries to pin on Thomas a claim that "the U.S. is not better off now that Saddam Hussein is out of power.":

[He added] that he can produce transcripts of Thomas' comments to support this point. Thomas denied this assertion, stating that she never made such a comment, instead stating that she had questioned in the past why so many innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed during this conflict. McClellan answered that this was his briefing and that Thomas could offer her political views from the stakeout, a microphone stand located outside the White House briefing room. Thomas replied that this was her "house too."

Fuller account after the jump

White House Gaggle
By: Adam Sharon
January 12, 2005

Weapons of Mass Destruction and Exchange with Helen Thomas

Press Secretary McClellan noted that the Iraq Survey Group is still operating in Iraq and will follow up on any leads indicating that Weapons of Mass Destruction do exist in Iraq. McClellan did add, however, that the Iraq Survey Group is not actively looking for WMD and that perhaps a few people on the ground are continuing to look into this matter. McClellan then noted that in October, President Bush did state that the U.S. must find out why intelligence was flawed regarding this issue. Helen Thomas continued to ask follow up questions about WMD, until she was interrupted by McClellan. The Press Secretary noted that Thomas was on the record stating that the U.S. is not better off now that Saddam Hussein is out of power, adding that he can produce transcripts of Thomas' comments to support this point. Thomas denied this assertion, stating that she never made such a comment, instead stating that she had questioned in the past why so many innocent Iraqi civilians have been killed during this conflict. McClellan answered that this was his briefing and that Thomas could offer her political views from the stakeout, a microphone stand located outside the White House briefing room. Thomas replied that this was her "house too."