Texas Gov. Rick Perry issued a statement Wednesday calling for the resignation of the senior Obama administration official who called Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a "chickenshit," as revealed in an article by the Atlantic's Jeffrey Goldberg on Tuesday.
In the statement, Perry's office said there was "absolutely no excuse for such language" coming from the Obama administration:
I’m hopeful the President of the United States shares the complete and total disbelief many of us felt that a senior official working in the West Wing of the White House would use profanity to describe the leader of our greatest ally in the Middle East. The President should demand to know who said this and ask for their resignation as there is absolutely no excuse for such language coming out of the White House. If the President receives no answer as to who said this he should consider making wholesale changes to his staff in order to guard our vital interests and for the sake of maintaining an important relationship with a key ally.
On Wednesday, State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki made clear that the administration was not interested in finding out who made the inflammatory comments, while White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said the anonymous official's statements "do not reflect the administration's view."