(White House photo by Pete Souza)
WASHINGTON–White House Chief of Staff Bill Daley, pictured in what seems a dramatic photo taken in the Situation Room on Sunday as the raid on Osama Bin Laden was unfolding, said the moment that stayed with him from that historic day was when President Obama said “We got him.”
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said Thursday from Rome there may be “no great meaning whatsoever” to the photo, taken as Obama and top staffers were watching a live video feed of the operation.
I asked for Daley’s reaction to what has quickly become an iconic photo and was sent a statement from Daley: “I was with the President Obama as we monitored events throughout that day. To borrow a phrase, what happens in the situation room, stays in the situation room. But I will never forget the moment when the President said those three simple words: “We got him.”
Daley made the comment originally at the Arab American Institute Wednesday night.
Clinton was pictured with her hand in front of her face. One could surmise she was reacting to something she was watching–or the more mundane explanation she was covering her mouth while coughing, offered while in Rome for a conference.
“Those were 38 of the most intense minutes. I have no idea what any of us were looking at that particular millisecond when the picture was taken,” Clinton said of that moment in the Situation Room. “I am somewhat sheepishly concerned that it was my preventing one of my early spring allergic coughs. So, it may have no great meaning whatsoever.”
