Joe Sestak Confirms That White House Attempted To Bribe Him Out Of Race Against Specter
The Obama administration may have tried to walk away from Specter at the zero hour of his primary campaign against challenger Joe Sestak, but now Sestak is confirming earlier accusations he’d made about just how invested Obama was in seeing Specter win.
Washington (CNN) – Rep. Joe Sestak says he was offered an unspecified job by the White House in an attempt to stop him from challenging Sen. Arlen Specter in Pennsylvania’s Senate Democratic primary.
Sestak, who defeated the veteran Specter in last week’s primary election for the Democratic nomination, answered “yes” Sunday when asked by CNN about the White House offer. Sestak has previously acknowledged the offer in other interviews.
However, Sestak refused to provide any further details “about something that happened months earlier,” saying “beyond that, there’s nothing to add.”
There are a lot of ways to look at this.
Sestak clearly isn’t running away from his oh-so-inconvenient accusations against the Obama administration, which would seem to indicate a willingness to distance himself from The One. Which, given Obama’s track record in back candidates (Coakely, Corzine, Deeds and Specter), is telling.
On the other hand, Sestak did throw this accusation out early back when he was merely a primary challenger to a 30-year incumbent with the President’s backing and he can’t exactly walk away from it now.
Regardless, it happened. Sestak says it happened. The Obama administration isn’t denying it. And it illustrates, perfectly, the sort of “hope and change” Obama was selling when he got elected.
Tags: arlen specter, Barack Obama, joe sestak, pennsylvania
