ADVERTISEMENT

Ed Henry to WH: Have Obama's Promises To Combat ISIL Been Empty Threats?

Fox News reporter Ed Henry ripped into President Obama's admission that he doesn't have a strategy yet to combat ISIL, demanding answers from press secretary Josh Earnest during a Friday briefing.

Henry began by noting that, as the briefing began, the journalists could hear Obama's plane departing for fundraising events. "Why is he still raising campaign money, playing golf, when he's acknowledging he doesn't have a strategy to deal with this?" Henry asked.

Obama on Thursday rebuked the press for leaping to the assumption that the United States has already decided to intervene in Syria. Henry quoted the president's own words after the execution of American journalist James Foley by ISIL, when he said, "When people harm Americans, anywhere, we do what’s necessary to see that justice is done. And we act against ISIL, standing alongside others."

"Was that just an empty threat?" asked Henry. "Is there a way to get justice, as he told the American people he was going to do, without military action in Syria?"

Earnest tried to dodge Henry several times, and said that the Pentagon is still developing military options for Obama.

"You are saying it is the Pentagon's issue?" Henry shot back. "Is the commander in chief not saying he wants this on his desk tomorrow?"

Henry quoted Obama saying one year ago that terror groups were metastasizing, and that there needed to be a strategy to combat regional threats. "One year later, how can he not have that strategy?"