Obama 'hijacks' tech executive meeting to make 'PR pitch' on Obamacare website fix instead of dealing with NSA surveillance

[mystery-ak]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2525447/Obama-hijacks-tech-executive-meeting-changes-subject-NSA-surveillance-healthcare-gov-fixes.html

Obama 'hijacks' tech executive meeting to make 'PR pitch' on Obamacare website fix instead of dealing with NSA surveillance

    'We didn't really care for a PR pitch' about Obamacare, said one executive
    The White House telegraphed in advance that the president wanted to talk up his efforts to fix healthcare.gov, but no one in the room was interested
    Tech executives gathered in the Roosevelt Room to discuss the NSA's overreach in seizing their digital records
    A federal judge ruled Monday that the practice violates the U.S. Constitution's guarantees against unreasonable searches

By David Martosko, U.s. Political Editor

PUBLISHED: 15:59 EST, 17 December 2013 | UPDATED: 16:05 EST, 17 December 2013

During a White House meeting called to brief America's largest tech companies today about government overreach in electronic surveillance, President Barack Obama changed the subject – angering some meeting participants by shifting gears to address the failed launch of healthcare.gov.

'That wasn't what we came for,' a vice-president of a company whose CEO attended told MailOnline. 'We really didn't care for a PR pitch about how the administration is trying to salvage its internal health care tech nightmare.'

One executive said that meeting participants were dead-set against straying from the principal focus of the meeting – the uncomfortable and legally untenable position they are in when the National Security Agency demands access to their digital records.

The White House said in advance that the meeting would include a discussion of healthcare.gov, but the company executive said the only subject that mattered to the participants was the NSA.

'He basically hijacked the meeting,' the executive said. 'We all told the White House that we were only there to talk about what the NSA was up to and how it affects us.'


All smiles: Obama joked with tech executives before focusing on Obamacare and relegating the companies' NSA concerns to second-tier status


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[Carling]

[Chieftain]

This reeks of desperation.  Who in that meeting would be bold enough to interrupt the President and tell him to stick to the subject??

This is what we can expect up until the Obammys depart for an extended "Winter Holiday".  The fit will hit the shan on January 1st, and there won't be any changing of the subject then.

Developing...

[truth_seeker]

Three years as a lame duck, approval lower than Clinton during impeachment.