Neil Abercrombie: “it is very difficult for Mr. McClellan or anyone else to do that when the President himself in the space of the last…”

“it is very difficult for Mr. McClellan or anyone else to do that when the President himself in the space of the last week or so has indicated at least twice that he did not know the facts, that he was anxious to find out what the facts were, that he too, presumably meaning ``in addition'' would like to find out what was going on or what had happened. Now, this is the President of the United States. Hundreds of people are dead, thousands of people have been grievously wounded. Speaking of the prestige that the gentleman referred to, that has been literally destroyed the world over. We now have the Secretary, the spectacle, the spectacle of the Secretary of the State now wondering whether or not he would have made the same recommendations had he had other information, at the same time when many of us here were saying, let us take a deep breath, let us be sure we know what we are doing. The inspections are working; the inspections were underway. We were not getting the information back that the administration wanted to hear. That is the difficulty. My memory is not in such difficult straits that I cannot recall what happened during those times. I realize we are now at a point that would understand only too well where inconvenient thought is shoved down the memory hole. We simply put it out of sight and pretend it did not happen.”