It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to figure out that Dick Durbin lied about this provocative exchange in order to smear Republicans, but it is rare to see the ‘higher-ups’ in the Democrat party throw one of their own under the bus and refute the lie so categorically (emphasis mine):
BUSINESS INSIDER – A claim from the No. 2 Democrat in the Senate, Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), drew denials from House Republican leadership and the White House on Wednesday.
Durbin claimed in a weekend Facebook post that a House GOP leader told President Barack Obama that the leader “cannot even stand to look at” him during a recent negotiation over the government shutdown and raising the nation’s debt ceiling.
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said, flatly, that the exchange “did not happen.”
A spokesman for House Speaker John Boehner was baffled by Durbin’s allegation.
“The Speaker certainly didn’t say that, and doesn’t recall anyone else doing so,” Michael Steel, Boehner’s spokesman, said in an email Wednesday morning.
Brendan Buck, also a Boehner spokesman, released a statement after Carney’s remarks.
“Senator Durbin’s accusation is a serious one, and it appears to have been invented out of thin air,” Buck said. “The senator should disclose who told him this account of events, retract his reckless allegation immediately, and apologize.”