| |
|
|
|
President Obama on Monday signed a bill intended to thwart young smokers and to bring tobacco products under federal control.
New York Times
6/22/2009
, entering this race, is that he couldn’t be a smoking president.”
Now there are few touchier questions inside the White House than whether Mr. Obama is still smoking. One senior administration official declined to answer, but pointed out that the president spoke Monday in the present tense, saying, “I know how difficult it can be to break this habit,” as opposed to “I know how difficult it was to break this habit.”
As Mr. Obama shook hands with some of the guests at the bill-signing ceremony, he wandered near a group of reporters. Dan Lothian, a correspondent for CNN, asked, “Mr. President, how difficult has your struggle been with smoking?”
The president, a mere few feet away, did not reply.
Several minutes later, the question came up at the daily White House press briefing. When asked directly if Mr. Obama was still smoking, Robert Gibbs, the president’s press secretary, replied: “He struggles with it every day. I don’t honestly see the need to get a whole lot more specific than the fact that it’s a continuing struggle.”
|
|
|
| | |
| | |
|
|
