Carney on Jay-Z Lyric: 'I Guess Nothing Rhymes With Treasury'

White House shoots down song's line about Obama blessing Cuba trip
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Apr 11, 2013 2:45 PM CDT

The flap over Jay-Z and Beyonce's trip to Cuba resulted in what has to be one of the odder exchanges in Jay Carney's tenure as White House spokesman. In this afternoon's news briefing, Donovan Slack of Politico noted that Jay-Z released a rap today in which he suggests that President Obama himself cleared the trip. Slack quoted the line in full:

  • Jay-Z: "I turned Havana into Atlanta. Boy from the hood, I got White House clearance. Obama said chill, you gonna get me impeached. You don’t need this (expletive) anyway, chill with me on the beach."

Credit Carney for a decent comeback:

  • "I guess nothing rhymes with Treasury, because Treasury offers and gives licenses for travel, as you know, and the White House has nothing to do with it." (Treasury had cleared it as an "educational" trip, reports Yahoo News.)
Pressed to clarify, Carney—now being called "Jay C" by headline writers—insisted that neither Obama nor anyone in the White House was involved. "It's a song, Donovan. The president did not communicate with Jay-Z over this trip." (More Jay-Z stories.)

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