| "Dammit, they noticed. Quick, guys -- present the plausible excuse!" |
The Media Research Center, a media watchdog, reported Friday that the White House had removed a video of French President Francois Hollande speaking at a press event on terrorism with President Obama.
When the video reappeared on the White House website and YouTube, the audio of Mr. Hollande’s translator goes silent just as he says the words "Islamist terrorism," then begins again at the end of his sentence.
Mr. Hollande, speaking in French, was also muted as he uttered the phrase.
But the official White House Transcript of Mr. Hollande’s remarks included the full sentence:
"But we’re also well aware that the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and Iraq. We therefore have to act both in Syria and in Iraq, and this is what we’re doing within the framework of the coalition," Mr. Hollande said, according to the transcript, but not the video.
President Obama, who has come under fire for avoiding phrases such as "radical Islam," and "Islamic terrorism," made three mentions of terrorism at Thursday’s meeting, using the phrases "hands of terrorism," "scourge of terrorism" and "counterterrorism."
A White House official told the New York Post that the audio gap was the result of a technical error.