The White House on Monday flatly denied a new claim that President Obama postponed the raid to kill Osama bin Laden four times.
The claim appears in a book authored by best-selling author Richard Miniter, called “Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisers Who Decide For Him.” In the book, which hits stores August 21, Miniter writes that an anonymous source with Joint Special Operations Command told him that the president hesitated to authorize the raid on a number of occasions at the urging of top White House adviser Valerie Jarrett.
When asked about the claim today, White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that “it seems pretty clear that Mr. Miniter doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”
“It is an utter fabrication,” Earnest said, adding that Jarrett was not privy to details about the mission, which was eventually carried out on May 2 of last year.
