(Reuters) –
President Barack Obama accused Fox News on
Sunday of keeping alive controversies the White
House believes have been settled in a testy
interview that aired before the NFL's Super Bowl,
the most-viewed sports event in the United States.
Host Bill O'Reilly asked Obama why he did not fire
his health and human services chief over the
botched rollout of the healthcare law last year,
whether there was "widespread corruption" at the
Internal Revenue Service, and whether the White
House had tried to play down the significance of a
2012 attack on the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi,
Libya.
Obama said "some boneheaded decisions" were to
blame for extra scrutiny the IRS had given to
conservative Tea Party groups seeking tax-exempt
status, and that the issue had been cleared up
during "multiple hearings" in Congress.
"These kinds of things keep on surfacing in part
because you and your TV station will promote
them," Obama told O'Reilly.
O'Reilly, who hosts a popular program on the most-
watched U.S. cable news network, told Obama that
many people believed his campaign team sought
to downplay the cause of insurgent attacks in
Benghazi, which killed four Americans, including
U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens.
"They believe it because folks like you are telling
them that," Obama said, rejecting the allegation,
which became a heated issue in the last stages of
the 2012 presidential election.
O'Reilly pressed Obama to explain why he did not
fire Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen
Sebelius after the website used to enroll people in
the new healthcare program known as Obamacare,
failed to work during its launch last October.
"My main priority right now is making sure that it
delivers for the American people," Obama said,
telling O'Reilly that enrollment in health insurance
was "about a month behind" projections because
of the early problems.
"I promise you that we hold everybody up and
down the line accountable," Obama said.
Sent From David Aniemeka
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