We all remember that moment in 2014 when Tommy Vietor, the former National Security Council spokesman in the Obama administration, brushed off Fox News’s Bret Baier after being asked about edits to the White House statements on the 2012 Benghazi terrorist attack. In a tone that foretold his future as a "Pod Bro," Vietor pooh-poohed Baier’s question about whether he had changed the word "attacks" to "demonstrations" in the talking points sent to Susan Rice: "Dude, this was like two years ago. We’re still talking about the most mundane process. We’re talking about the process of editing talking points. That’s what bureaucrats do all day long."
It was such a revealing moment because it captured the Obama administration’s indifference to the deaths of J. Christopher Stevens, Sean Smith, Tyrone Woods, and Glen Doherty. It also showed how they had no compunction about playing with words to advance their lies.
This week Vietor is back at it with a disregard for the truth by misrepresenting the words of President Donald Trump. Perhaps having learned from the success the left had in misrepresenting Trump’s Charlottesville remarks, Vietor thinks he can ascribe the opposite meaning to what Trump said, and his allies in the media will run with it.
In a post on X, Vietor claimed that Trump blamed pro-democracy activist Jimmy Lai for his imprisonment in Hong Kong during remarks in the Oval Office ahead of his trip to China.
Trump blames media tycoon turned political prisoner Jimmy Lai for his imprisonment in Hong Kong, and says he would keep Jim Comey in jail if he was imprisoned in the US, just like Xi Jinping wants Lai in jail. Wonder if Trump's fluffer @hughhewitt will weigh in on that take???
— Tommy Vietor (@TVietor08) May 11, 2026
Vietor tagged the wrong guy in Hewitt, the Salem Radio Network talk show host and former official in the Reagan administration, who eviscerated the co-host of Pod Save America and his former boss, the 44th president of the United States.
Anyone could have debunked Vietor’s claim just by playing back exactly what Trump said when he was asked if he could be the president to bring Lai home, which is exactly what Hewitt did first.
Video of the exchange shows that after saying Lai had “caused a lot of bedlam” for China, Trump says, "It’s like saying to me, ‘If [former FBI director James] Comey ever went to jail, would you let him out?’ It might be a hard one. Does that make sense? It might be hard because he’s a dirty cop, but Jimmy Lai isn’t that way." Trump then says that Lai "tried to do the right thing. He wasn't successful. Went to jail. And people would like him out. So, I'll bring him up again. I have brought him up with a beautiful daughter and son-in-law that would like to see him get out. I'm going to bring his name up."
It couldn't be clearer that Trump is blaming China for Lai's imprisonment and that he wants to see him released. Hewitt describes the type of person who would say otherwise:
You have to be really callous and indifferent to a man who's dying in solitary confinement to play games with his life. That's the core of the Pod Boys. That's the core of the Obama administration. That's the core of everything that they did. There was no substance to it. That's the core of the Obama library, an empty shell. That's why there are no achievements. That's why we're in a war with Iran because they didn't sustain maximum pressure. It's why Obamacare has failed dramatically because for them everything is a game. Everything is a show. Everything is the narrative. Everything is about trying to mobilize their base and raise more money. Get more listeners for Pod Save America. Engagement Farm. It's despicable. They're despicable people. Playing with the life of Jimmy Lai is despicable.
The main salesman of Obama's failed Iran policy, which Hewitt mentions and which gave the genocidal Iranian regime billions of dollars, was Ben Rhodes, Obama’s former deputy national security advisor and a regular guest on Pod Save America, a man who seems to have more sympathy for tyrannical regimes than for the people those regimes imprison and kill. Rhodes doesn’t just have high regard for Iranian tyrants; he also attended Fidel Castro’s funeral in Cuba. (Of course, Obama himself once sat next to Fidel’s brother, Raúl Castro, at a baseball game in Havana.) As Hewitt made clear, Vietor "and his buddy Ben Rhodes — they loved Cuba. They don't know about the Cuban political prisoners. They don't care about political prisoners. They never have. They cared about themselves. They cared about making money afterward. They care about Pod Save America, being a Pod Bro."
Trump, meanwhile, is the worst nightmare of the world’s tyrants, having already captured Nicolás Maduro in Venezuela and killed Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei in Iran. Cuba's regime may be next on the list.
Related: Cuba Falling: Rubio Issues a Major Blow to the Regime's Military Empire with Much More to Come
Obama says Trump's actions are doing damage to the international order, but Hewitt finishes by explaining why it's the Obama administration that truly damaged the world.
They absolutely screwed up the world with the JCPOA. They absolutely removed sanctions on Iran. They put no limits on the missile program. You know why they have so many missiles? Because the JCPOA had no limits on missiles. None. Zero. Didn't discuss it. You know why Hamas broke into Israel, murdered 1,200 people on 10/7? Know why Hezbollah began shelling Israel in 10/8 while the war is still raging on both the north and southern border of Israel? Because the JCPOA didn't say anything about the proxies. Why did the Houthis shoot an American? Why do we have to beg for our Navy sailors who were taken prisoner by Iran? Because Obama was afraid of his shadow. Because he erased his own red line. He was an abject failure as a president. And the Pod Boys are devoting their life to making Trump look small when he's big and making Obama look big when he's small. That's their life mission. Can't be done. It's impossible. It's physics. Political physics. Trump has accomplished a lot. Obama got nothing done. Zero domestically, zero internationally. So they come up with lies that endanger a man's freedom. It's just repulsive and disgusting.
Editor's Note: For decades, former presidents have been all talk and no action. Now, Donald Trump is eliminating the threat from Iran once and for all.
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