Perino's Friday briefing

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino just took questions during the Friday press briefing. The press was in the mood to ask about the destruction of waterboarding tapes reported by Gen. Hayden.

(MS. PERINO)

Peter.

Q Just to clarify, Dana, when you say the President supports Hayden, is he -- are we to infer that he supports Hayden's decision to destroy these tapes?

MS. PERINO: Hayden wasn't at the agency at the time.

Q I mean, the CIA decision to destroy these tapes.

MS. PERINO: As I said -- what I said is that he doesn't have any reason -- he said he has complete confidence in General Hayden; he doesn't have any reason to doubt him. They are still gathering facts, and I think until that is finished, I'm not going to comment beyond that.

(whitehouse.gov)

Nice work, "Peter." You asked a question based on the premise that Hayden was in charge when the tapes were destroyed. With that premise destroyed, you modify the question into a new question that uses as a premise the idea that Bush knew the tapes existed/were destroyed--an idea that Perino already explained wasn't the case.

Let's see better preparation next time.

*****