Fox News Correspondent Peter Doocy was back to battling with the White House press team, this time sparring with John Kirby, the White House National Security Communications Advisor. During his fight with Kirby on Monday, April 15, Doocy asked how Biden can possibly lead America when he spends so much time at the beach and it he should ramp up his attempts to deter Iran, such as by using more than one word.
Kicking off the spat, Doocy asked, “John, has President Biden considered maybe beefing up the public Iran posture to be more than just one word?” Kirby, in response, asked, “You’re — you’re referring to ‘Don’t?’” Doocy said, Yeah. Because he said, ‘Don’t’ and they did it anyway.” Kirby tried to answer, but Doocy interrupted and added, “So, now what?”
Kirby, in response, said, “what we did, Peter. Let’s talk about “don’t” and “did.” Let’s talk about Saturday night. He made it clear that he didn’t want to see escalation in the region. And —” Doocy attempted to cut him off, but, plowing on, he said, “Let me finish. He added military resources to the region right after October 7th. And then, when we had an inkling that this kind of thing was coming, he added even more military resources to the region: more destroyers that were capable of shooting down ballistic missiles, fighter s- — a fighter squadron that was able to shoot down drones. And that’s what we did.”
He continued, “So, you can talk about the “don’t” word all you want. But let’s talk about what did happen. And what did happen was Iran utterly failed. And if I’m sitting in Tehran right now, I’m betting that President Biden takes it pretty seriously. When he says “don’t escalate,” he’s going to act to make sure that you can’t. And they didn’t. Yes, they fired an unprecedented amount of munitions. But how much of a success did they have, Peter? None, zero, very little infrastructure. It was an embarrassing failure for the Supreme Leader, for the IRGC.”
Doocy, pressing Kirby, asked, “Now that we know that the Iranians do not listen to President Biden’s public warnings, is there any regret here about unfreezing billions of dollars for Iranian leaders during the President’s administration?” Kirby played dumb, asking, “What unfreezing are you talking about?” Doocy said, “He unfroze billions of dollars. There was a —”
Kirby denied the allegation, saying, when Doocy clarified that he though the money was for Iranian leaders, ” Really? I don’t think so.” Doocy then noted that the Biden administration claimed the money is “for humanitarian purposes,” then added, “doesn’t that free up money for them to spend on other stuff? Where do you get the money for an unprecedented number of munitions to — to fire at Israel?”
Kirby told him, “So, first of all, I’m betting if they’re sitting in Tehran, they’re taking it seriously when President Biden says he’s going to defend Israel. We put skin in the game — a whole heck of a lot of it — and knocked almost everything out of the sky. So, I’m betting they’re taking it pretty seriously. And as for this — this unfreezing, that — none of that fund — none of those funds — funds set up in an account, by the way, by the previous administration — goes directly to the Supreme Leader of the IRGC. It can only be used for humanitarian purposes. And we’re watching that account very, very closely to make sure that that’s what happens.”
Then Doocy brought up Biden’s frequent trips to the beach, asking, “And you guys often defend all the trips to Delaware by saying, “The President is not on vacation. He’s working. He can be the President from anywhere.” So, why did he have to come back on Saturday?”
Kirby, in response, told him, “Well, we got indications — shortly after arriving, we got better, firmer intelligence and information about the specific timing of what we expected to be this Iranian attack, and the President didn’t bat an eye before getting back on that helicopter and coming back. And he was here all Saturday night in the Situation Room, from mid-afternoon until late at night, getting real-time updates from General Kurilla and from his defense team all throughout the night, including calling Prime Minister Netanyahu right from the Situation Room. And as Karine mentioned, on Sunday, he was right back at it again, working the G7, calling King Abdullah. I don’t know what else to tell you. He had a very busy, full weekend.”
Watch them here:
