CBS News reporter confronts Kirby with the perfect question after US allows UN resolution calling for Gaza ceasefire to pass



CBS News correspondent Ed O'Keefe ruffled John Kirby's feathers on Monday.

The United Nations Security Council unanimously passed a resolution on Monday calling for a ceasefire in Gaza. The U.S. abstained from voting on the resolution, thereby allowing it to be adopted. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was understandably upset and canceled an Israeli delegation's scheduled trip to Washington, D.C.

At the White House press briefing, Kirby justified allowing the resolution to pass by claiming it links a ceasefire to the release of hostages.

But O'Keefe wasn't buying the justification and confronted Kirby over whether the U.S. is taking this new position because President Joe Biden is facing chaotic political headwinds for backing Israel.

"There are U.S. officials today saying Netanyahu is acting this way because he's facing some domestic political pressure. Aren’t there also domestic political pressures facing President Biden, and that’s part of the reason why you all are allowing this to happen today? O'Keefe began. "You’ve got members of the Democratic Party saying he’s doing this wrong. You’ve got the general public suggesting his support for Israel is misplaced.

"Is that part of why this is going through today?" O'Keefe asked.

The question clearly got under Kirby's skin.

"No, absolutely not," Kirby claimed, "and I've got to take issue with the premise of the question.

"The president makes decisions based on the national security interests of the United States, and this decision to abstain on this resolution is in keeping with the national security interests of the United States," he alleged. "And, quite frankly, it's in keeping with the national security concerns of the Israeli people."

Kirby, however, did not explain how the resolution benefits Israel.

Great questions from CBS’s @EdOKeefe.

O’Keefe: “There are U.S. officials today saying Netanyahu's acting this way because he's facing some domestic political pressure — there's domestic political issues going on. Aren't there also domestic political pressures facing President… pic.twitter.com/YCrercbsQG
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) March 25, 2024

This is the second time in two weeks that the Biden administration has been forced to address concerns that Biden is waffling on Israel because Democrats are upset that he supports Israel.

Last week, NBC News reported that Biden was outraged when he was told in January that his poll numbers are dipping because of his pro-Israel policies. The White House refused to provide substantive answers to questions about the report, instead calling such inquiries, "the 'When did you stop beating your spouse' question."

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Peter Doocy forces John Kirby into alarming admission about Afghanistan report — then second reporter bats cleanup



John Kirby admitted Thursday that an after-action report on the Biden administration's deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan is not about accountability.

At the White House press briefing, Fox News correspondent Peter Doocy wasted no time when it was his turn to question Kirby, the coordinator for strategic communications at the National Security Council, about the after-action report.

"Who's going to get fired over this?" Doocy asked.

Shockingly, Kirby suggested that no one will face any accountability for the embarrassing incident that ultimately led to the deaths of American soldiers and Afghanistan civilians.

"The purpose of the document that we’re putting out today is to sort of collate the chief reviews and findings of the agencies that did after-action reviews," Kirby said.

"The purpose of it is not accountability," he admitted. "The purpose of it is to study lessons learned."

04/06/23: Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre www.youtube.com

But that's not true.

While Kirby said the report is not about "accountability," another reporter later confronted him over where the report does lay accountability. The reporter said, "You assign so much accountability to the Trump administration and very little, comparatively, to your own."

Indeed, the 12-page report repeatedly blames Trump for what happened under President Joe Biden's watch.

  • "President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor."
  • "President Biden had committed to ending the war in Afghanistan, but when he came into office he was confronted with difficult realities left to him by the Trump Administration."
  • "The departing Trump Administration had left the Biden Administration with a date for withdrawal, but no plan for executing it."
  • "The Trump Administration’s disregard and even hostility toward our commitment to Afghan allies led to a massive backlog of over 18,000 [Special Immigrant Visa] applicants. Despite drawing down troops and committing to a full withdrawal, the departing Trump Administration had all but stopped SIV interviews."
  • " The Trump Administration had hollowed out much of the career workforce, including at senior levels, at a moment when more resources were needed."

The report, on the other hand, completely absolves Biden.

In response to questions about blaming Trump, Kirby argued the Biden administration deserves congratulations for even completing an after-action report at all.

Later in the briefing, CBS News correspondent Ed O'Keefe confronted Kirby over the timing of the report's release.

"I think I speak on behalf of my colleagues in this room when we want the record to reflect that this was sent to us about 10 minutes before the briefing began with little notice, and it's the very definition of a modern major holiday news dump," O'Keefe said. "You're releasing this at the beginning of the high holidays and after months of requests from Republicans and the broader public."

\u201cJohn Kirby to CBS's @EdOKeefe on the WH dumping their Afghanistan withdrawal report ahead of a holiday weekend: "This is the result of months & months of work by individual agencies...to voluntarily review that withdrawal...No effort here to...obfuscate or...bury something"\u201d
— Curtis Houck (@Curtis Houck) 1680803632

Kirby, however, dismissed those concerns and claimed the report's release is the definition of transparency.

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