Like watching a gang of starving kids whack a pinata

WH Press Secretary McClellan is left twisting in the wind by BushCo. It's kinda hard not to feel sorry for him. (Via War Room)

QUESTION: So was the President made aware of the fact --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: And are you all going to apologize?

QUESTION: Was the President made aware of the faxed field report?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Are you all going to apologize for that?

QUESTION: Was the President aware of the faxed field report?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Is that a correct statement?

QUESTION: Scott, was the President made aware of the field report that was faxed?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Jessica, I just told you, I've asked the intelligence community what they based this paper on. I can't tell you what they based their paper on. You have to. We're not an intelligence-gathering agency.

QUESTION: No, but was the field report faxed --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: The President made his comments based on this white paper that was publicly released by the Central Intelligence Agency and the Defense Intelligence Agency, which is the arm of the -- which is an arm of the Pentagon --

QUESTION: -- President have access to material before it's declassified, so the question is, was he aware of this report on May 27th?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: I just told you -- you shouldn't make any assumptions, but you should go and ask the intelligence community what was this based on. I can't tell you what they based that on. They're the intelligence-gathering agency.

QUESTION: You can tell us if the President had this information. Did he have this information?

SCOTT McCLELLAN: Jessica, this -- I just saw this report. I'll come back with more information if there is. But this is reckless reporting. And for you all to go on the air this morning and make such a charge is irresponsible.

QUESTION: But the President spoke very definitively --

SCOTT McCLELLAN: And I hope that ABC would apologize for it and make a correction on the air.

QUESTION: "We found" -- I'm quoting -- "We found the weapons of mass destruction. We found biological laboratories." That's what he said. He didn't say, "The evidence that's coming in suggests." He didn't say that. He said it definitively.

SCOTT McCLELLAN: No, let me tell you -- here is the briefing from the CIA conference call they did with reporters: "We are highly confident that the coalition forces in Iraq have discovered a mobile biological production plant." That's from the intelligence community. This was a joint paper -- not just the CIA, but also the Defense Intelligence Agency. So it was their assessment at the time.And you all should go back and look at the time period, as well, and see what was said at that time period. This is rehashing an old issue, that's all it is. There were -- stories covered it at this time. I mean, The Washington Post, on the very day that the President was asked a question -- the President was responding to a question, first of all, when he was asked. The Washington Post, on that very day, was printing articles talking about this, and other papers, as well.