Uh-oh. Charles Koch's
fee fees are hurt that the president would dare criticize him for lobbying against clean energy subsidies, but even though Koch went forth—as a powerful billionaire accustomed to getting his way—and told Politico that he did not think the president should criticize him, the president isn't backing down. Now, Barack Obama is not making a special effort to talk to reporters
only about Koch's hurt fee fees—talk about beneath "the dignity of the president"—but White House press secretary Josh Earnest did a good job
getting across the "not backing down" message:
“I’m not sure whether to describe those comments as remarkably rich or utterly predictable,” Earnest said in response to a question from a POLITICO reporter. “It’s that when the president is advocating, for example, the end of tax subsidies that benefit oil and gas companies, that somebody who has made billions of dollars leading an oil and gas company, might not think very highly of that policy proposal.”
Asked if he was surprised by the whining, Earnest also managed to get in a little dig at Politico for serving as a Koch mouthpiece:
“I guess. Yeah,” he said, remarking that Obama is not particularly surprised to see criticism of his policies from people like the “millionaires and billionaires” who “start to squeal.”
“And I guess one billionaire special-interest benefactor chose to squeal to a POLITICO reporter,” Earnest said.
All in all, a feeling of eye roll + smirk + boredom from the White House in response to Koch's denial that he plays the role in American politics he actually does play and his fake concern for the dignity of the presidency.