The Obama transition team is knocking down leaks to the press for the second day in a row Wednesday, claiming that the Associated Press got it wrong in naming advisers to the president-elect.
“There’s a lot of disinformation out there,” said Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter.
The AP reported Tuesday night that Sam Nunn, a former Democratic senator, had been hired to advise President-elect Barack Obama on his choices for Pentagon leadership, and that former Clinton Secretary of State Warren Christopher was advising Mr. Obama on his State Department picks.
Ms. Cutter said that Mr. Nunn is advising Mr. Obama on his “defense transition,” but on an informal basis, and that Mr. Christopher, while “deeply respected in the United States and throughout the international community … is not playing a role in the transition process.”
On Tuesday, transition manager John Podesta told over 100 reporters at a press conference that leaks out of a meeting between Mr. Obama and President Bush also were “not accurate.”
Those leaks, attributed to senior Obama advisers, said that Mr. Bush had withheld support for economic aid packages such as a stimulus and help for carmakers in an attempt to get Congress to pass a free trade agreement with Colombia.
The White House also denied those reports, and played down rumors that the president was angry over the leak.
But Ms. Cutter did promise some news today or tomorrow, despite the absence of any public appearances by Mr. Obama today.
“We’re working hard to put the agency review teams together and expect they’ll be announced this week and inside the agencies by the end of the week,” she said.
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