With NSA leaker Edward Snowden holed up in a Russian airport, hoping Ecuador will take him, President Obama sounds unconcerned. “I have not called President Xi personally or President Putin personally and the reason is because number one: I shouldn’t have to,” he said during a news conference from Senegal, downplaying the whole affair while subtly jabbing at China and Russia. “This is something that routinely is dealt with between law enforcement officials in various countries and this is not exceptional from a legal perspective.” And if Snowden is watching from one of those little airport TVs with the closed captioning, the president had a few belittling words for him, too.
“I’m not gonna have one case … suddenly being elevated to the point where I’ve got to start to do wheeling and dealing and trading on a whole host of other issues simply to get a guy extradited so that he can face the justice system in the United States,” said Obama. “I’m not going to be scrambling jets to get a 29-year-old hacker.” Hear that, aspiring hackers? You’re not so important.
“I get why it’s a fascinating story from a press perspective,” Obama added, setting up a final burn. “And I’m sure there will be a made-for-TV movie somewhere down the line.”
