Sotloff Family Tells CBS They Were 'Bullied' By Obama Administration; NBC and ABC Ignore

By Kyle Drennen | September 17, 2014 | 3:00 PM EDT

Appearing on Wednesday's CBS This Morning, Barak Barfi, spokesman for the family of beheaded journalist Steven Sotloff, ripped the Obama administration over it's handling of the kidnapping of Sotloff and fellow journalist James Foley by ISIS terrorists: "We never really believed that the administration was doing anything to help us. We had very, very limited contact with senior officials..."

Moments later, Barfi accused the White House of intimidating the families of the hostages: "The families sat with this National Security Council official and basically he bullied and hectored them and they were scared....I sat in other meetings with mid-level State Department officials and the FBI and I basically heard the same thing." [Listen to the audio]

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Co-host Norah O'Donnell followed up: "This is a serious charge because you're saying that someone within the National Security Council bullied and hectored the Sotloff family, is that correct?" Barfi reiterated:

That's basically what happened. The Sotloff's feel this. And I'm hearing that [White House chief of staff] Denis McDonough saying they weren't threatened. He wasn't in the meetings. John Kerry wasn't in the meetings. The family was in the meetings and then I was in a subsequent meeting, and I know what I heard.

O'Donnell replied: "Why would the White House do that to a family?" Barfi explained: "We don't know. We don't have a view into the White House. We didn't have a very good relationship with the administration....we don't know what the administration's policy was on this."

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