White House calls Senate override of veto of Sept. 11 bill 'embarrassing'

The White House on Wednesday slammed the U.S. Senate's nearly unanimous vote to reject President Barack Obama's veto of legislation allowing relatives of the victims of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to sue Saudi Arabia's government.

"This is the single most embarrassing thing this United States' Senate has done possibly since 1983," White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a briefing, referring to the last time when the chamber so overwhelmingly overrode a president's veto.

"For those senators to then move forward in overriding the president's veto that would prevent those negative consequences is an abdication of their basic responsibilities as elected representatives of the American people," he said.