House Oversight Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is hammering President Obama over canceled White House tours, with a new video accusing him of failing to take responsibility for the decision.
The video, called “No Leadership, No Responsibility, No Tours,” was released Wednesday, opening with a shot of Obama alone in the Oval Office.
“It’s been a lot quieter at the White House since they canceled tours for school groups,” the ad says. “No one to get in the way … of this,” it continues, cutting to images of Obama running with his dog, Bo, and playing basketball on the White House grounds.
“So who’s taking responsibility?” the video asks.
It then plays a clip from a recent ABC News interview in which Obama said the decision to cancel the tours was not one “that went up to the White House,” followed by a press conference in which White House spokesman Jay Carney says “we had to cancel the tours, it’s our job to cancel the tours.”
“So the White House cuts tours,” the ad concludes. “But hasn’t implemented $67 billion in savings? No leadership, no responsibility, no tours.”
The ad directs viewers to the Oversight Committee to read an inspector general’s report on reforms that could save taxpayers money.
“It’s telling that the President would rather cancel White House tours during the most popular tourist season than roll up his sleeves and get to work fixing our nation’s spending crisis,” said Issa in a statement.
Republicans have hammered the administration over the decision to cancel the White House tours, arguing that Obama made the decision to hurt the GOP in the debate over the $85 billion in automatic sequester cuts.
But the move has the White House on the defensive, with a recent poll for The Hill showing that a majority of votes believe the administration should resume the tours.
The White House has taken responsibility for the decision, but claims it was ultimately the call of the Secret Service to cut back on tours to avoid cuts to other items.
The president in an interview last week said the White House would look into ways to resume the tours, possibly for school groups.
