Not the first Obamabot caught in a lie:
Airports contradict Janet Napolitano's sequester claim
Airports have denied a claim by Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, that the sequester is already causing long delays for travelers at security screening checkpoints.
Ms Napolitano said today that major airports were seeing lines "150 to 200 per cent as long as we would normally expect" as result of the federal spending cuts that went into force on Friday.
"We're already seeing the effects at some of the ports of entry, the big airports, for example. Some of them had very long lines this weekend," she told a breakfast event organised by Politico.
When pressed for specifics she cited Chicago's O'Hare, Atlanta's Hartfield-Jackson and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), adding: "I don't mean to scare, I mean to inform."
However, when contacted by The Daily Telegraph, spokespeople for both O'Hare and LAX, as well as representatives from the travel industry, denied that airports had been hit by delays.
"We haven't had any slowdowns at all," said Marshall Lowe, a spokesman for LAX. Mr Lowe said that he had been on duty over the weekend and received no reports of unusual security delays.
DeAllous Smith, a spokesman for Hartfield-Jackson, said: "There have been no abnormally long lines at the security checkpoint nor unusual aircraft delays at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as a result of sequestration."
Their comments were echoed by Karen Pride, the director of media relations at Chicago Department of Aviation, who described operations at O'Hare as "normal" with "no unusual delays or cancellations".
When asked specifically about the cabinet secretary's claims, Ms Pride said: "I'm not aware of that. I've had no reports of that."
The Obama administration has been repeatedly accused of exaggerating the impact of the $85 billion in cuts as it seeks to pressure Republicans in Congress into replacing them with a mixture of spending reductions and tax rises.
Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, was widely criticised last month for saying that teachers were already being laid off because of the cuts, a claim without evidence. The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog awarded the claim four Pinocchios - its highest rating for falsehood.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately return a request for comment on Ms Napolitano's claim.
Luis Casanova, a regional spokesman for the Transport Security Administration (TSA), said "we've been asked not to comment on the subject [of sequestration]" and referred calls to DHS.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...radict-Janet-Napolitanos-sequester-claim.html
Airports contradict Janet Napolitano's sequester claim
Airports have denied a claim by Janet Napolitano, the secretary of homeland security, that the sequester is already causing long delays for travelers at security screening checkpoints.
Ms Napolitano said today that major airports were seeing lines "150 to 200 per cent as long as we would normally expect" as result of the federal spending cuts that went into force on Friday.
"We're already seeing the effects at some of the ports of entry, the big airports, for example. Some of them had very long lines this weekend," she told a breakfast event organised by Politico.
When pressed for specifics she cited Chicago's O'Hare, Atlanta's Hartfield-Jackson and Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), adding: "I don't mean to scare, I mean to inform."
However, when contacted by The Daily Telegraph, spokespeople for both O'Hare and LAX, as well as representatives from the travel industry, denied that airports had been hit by delays.
"We haven't had any slowdowns at all," said Marshall Lowe, a spokesman for LAX. Mr Lowe said that he had been on duty over the weekend and received no reports of unusual security delays.
DeAllous Smith, a spokesman for Hartfield-Jackson, said: "There have been no abnormally long lines at the security checkpoint nor unusual aircraft delays at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport as a result of sequestration."
Their comments were echoed by Karen Pride, the director of media relations at Chicago Department of Aviation, who described operations at O'Hare as "normal" with "no unusual delays or cancellations".
When asked specifically about the cabinet secretary's claims, Ms Pride said: "I'm not aware of that. I've had no reports of that."
The Obama administration has been repeatedly accused of exaggerating the impact of the $85 billion in cuts as it seeks to pressure Republicans in Congress into replacing them with a mixture of spending reductions and tax rises.
Arne Duncan, the secretary of education, was widely criticised last month for saying that teachers were already being laid off because of the cuts, a claim without evidence. The Washington Post's Fact Checker blog awarded the claim four Pinocchios - its highest rating for falsehood.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) did not immediately return a request for comment on Ms Napolitano's claim.
Luis Casanova, a regional spokesman for the Transport Security Administration (TSA), said "we've been asked not to comment on the subject [of sequestration]" and referred calls to DHS.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/wor...radict-Janet-Napolitanos-sequester-claim.html