Blago Trial Hits White House Q & A

Gibbs gets asked about Obama's role:

Q Tom Balanoff is a local labor leader in Chicago and in testimony today at the Blagojevich trial he talks about a phone call that he got from Barack Obama on Monday evening before the Tuesday election, at which he quotes Mr. Obama as saying that he thinks Valerie Jarrett should be a United States senator, that she fits the criteria; "I would prefer that she remain working for President Obama, but she does want to be Senator." And Balanoff said he told the soon-to-be President, "I said, 'Thank you, I'm going to reach out to Governor Blagojevich with that.'" Did the President make that phone call?

MR. GIBBS: You're telling me about this testimony. I'm not going to get into commenting on obviously an ongoing trial. And I have had not had an opportunity to see that.

Q But you've said before that the President did not get involved with the suggestions or the conversations with Blagojevich.

Stonewalling, word parsing.