White House rejects claim that Clinton prodded Obama to approve bin Laden raid

FILE -- Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton (AP)

The White House on Tuesday rejected a reporter's claim that Secretary of State Hillary Clinton prodded a reluctant President Obama to approve the raid on Usama bin Laden's compound last year.

The claim was made in journalist Richard Miniter's new book, "Leading From Behind: The Reluctant President and the Advisors Who Decide for Him." Miniter alleges that Obama repeatedly nixed the mission until Clinton finally made the case to green-light it.

National Security Council spokesman Tommy Vietor called the claim "completely made up and wrong."

"The decision to take out Osama bin Laden was made by the president, as many of those involved have said on the record," he said, citing accounts to that effect from former Defense Secretary Robert Gates and sitting Defense Secretary Leon Panetta.

Vice President Biden has also touted the president's decision-making in approving the raid that killed bin Laden.

Miniter, though, reportedly claimed adviser Valerie Jarrett tried to talk Obama out of it. According to The New York Post, the book claimed Jarrett was worried about a "backlash against the president if the operation failed," but Clinton fought to convince Obama to approve it.

Miniter's website alleges that "Obama delayed and canceled the mission to kill Osama bin Laden three times" before the actual raid.

Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said, "While Secretary Clinton strongly supported the president's gutsy decision to launch the Bin Laden operation, Miniter's analogy is wronger than wrong. Just didn't happen that way. It was a tough and decision, and the president made it."