VIdeo:ShepSmithincredulousasStateDepartmentopens

VIdeo: Shep Smith incredulous as State Department opens briefing … by ignoring Ukraine plane crash

posted at 4:35 pm on July 17, 2014 by Allahpundit

• Share on Facebook 1
• 1 SHARES

Via the Blaze, it’s appropriate for America’s diplomatic arm to be cautious in assigning blame, but this isn’t caution. It’s avoidance, and it’s inexplicable given that Psaki knows it’s the only topic anyone’s interested in. Whatever she has to say about Afghanistan can wait until tomorrow. What could State possibly be thinking?

One of Ace’s commenters thinks it’s a simple matter of the administration being paralyzed as their problems internationally get bigger. Obama doesn’t know what to do or say about Russian separatists shooting down a passenger jet, so he goes on his burger run and gives a 60-second perfunctory statement. If he’s calm and treats it like no big deal, maybe everyone else will treat it like less of a big deal too. Psaki might be making the same move. If the White House isn’t treating this like a crisis, it’s unfair to expect them to do much about it, right? There’s something to that, but I think you’re also seeing in O’s and Psaki’s responses how invested the White House is in pushing its daily “message” to the media, no matter what else is going on in the world. Psaki’s job today was to spin Afghanistan and, darn it, she was going to spin it, no matter how many bodies are scattered across eastern Ukraine. Obama did the same thing in his Delaware speech earlier this afternoon, segueing easily from the crash to babbling about infrastructure spending. They’re in control of the narrative, not the media — or at least they want to be. In reality, Shep and Jennifer Griffin are laughing at them and going back to covering the crash. Baffling, but this is where we are with two and a half years to go.

• Share on Facebook 1
• 1 SHARES

Tags: Afghanistan, Europe, Jen Psaki, jet, malaysian, NATO, putin, Russia, shep smith, State Department

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair

StatetellsHouseOversightCommitteetofinda

State tells House Oversight Committee to find a “more appropriate witness” than Kerry on Benghazi

posted at 12:41 pm on May 13, 2014 by Ed Morrissey

•  Share on Facebook

If Darrell Issa expected John Kerry to abide by a subpoena in the issue of e-mails withheld by the White House on Benghazi, the State Department wants to temper those expectations. Earlier today, spokesperson Jen Psaki offered a suggestion to the House Oversight Committee — find someone “more appropriate” for such testimony:

The State Department is doubling down on its opposition to Secretary of State John Kerry testifying on the deadly Benghazi attack, saying in a statement overnight that a congressional committee should find “a more appropriate witness.”

Kerry will be on a previously scheduled official trip to Mexico on May 21, the day the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee subpoenaed him to testify, State spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in the statement.

Psaki said State Department officials had been in touch with the committee to “determine how to resolve their subpoena,” but she stopped short of confirming that Kerry would ever appear at a hearing related to the Sept. 11, 2012, attack, which predated his time in office.

The militant attack on a U.S. consulate and nearby CIA annex killed Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other American personnel. An independent review panel found that the State Department had ignored requests for more guards and security upgrades and had become too reliant on local militias for security. The State Department has since participated in several congressional hearings and released thousands of documents in response to queries about its response that night.

“Given the pressing foreign affairs issues that the secretary is actively engaged on and the committee’s focus on document production issues, we would like to explore whether there are better means of addressing the committee’s interests, including through a more appropriate witness,” Psaki’s statement said.

That’s diplomatic speak for: Enough already. Find somebody else to testify.

Good luck with that. The reason why Oversight subpoenaed Kerry was that the Obama administration has been hiding documents related to Benghazi, a fact that emerged a couple of weeks ago. That obstruction apparently includes State, which has supplied “thousands of documents,” but with significant redactions and now clearly some gaps in their compliance. Kerry has responsibility for State, and Congress has legitimate responsibilities for oversight and accountability.

Still, the obvious question can’t be avoided. What difference at this point does this make? Once the Select Committee takes over the investigation, Oversight will have to move on to other issues — probably the IRS scandal. That’s why this little snub from Psaki makes little sense, politically speaking, except momentary self-satisfaction by the Obama administration. State could have just played out the string and waited for Trey Gowdy to start his probe, and then moot the entire controversy by providing full disclosure of documents withheld or redacted in earlier investigations.

Until now, State has played it cool. With Leon Panetta and Mike Morell weighing in with support for the select committee, maybe they should have stuck with that strategy.

•  Share on Facebook

Tags: Benghazi, Darrell Issa, House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Jen Psaki, John Kerry, select committee, subpoena

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair

TheObamaStateDepartment’sSmartPowerdoctrinein

The Obama State Department’s Smart Power doctrine in two tweets

posted at 6:01 pm on April 25, 2014 by Mary Katharine Ham

Look, I don’t want to make the biggest deal in the world out of dumb tweets, but if your entire foreign policy philosophy amounts to, “We’re way super-smarter than the last guy who did this, and our super-smarts are going to change the world,” it behooves you not to tweet like a—well, I would say like a tween, but they know how to use hashtags.

The world stands #UnitedforUkraine. Let’s hope that the #Kremlin & @mfa_russia will live by the promise of hashtag

— Jen Psaki (@statedeptspox) April 24, 2014

For goings-on at the @StateDept from a canine perspective, #FF @JohnKerry's dog, @DiploMutt.

— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) April 25, 2014

Jake Tapper to Jen Psaki on “The Lead” today: Nothing the administration is doing is working, right?

JAKE TAPPER: If Russia starts a World War III, what is the U.S. prepared to do about it?

JEN PSAKI: Well, we certainly hope that’s not the case. We continue to believe there’s no military solution to what is happening on the ground in Ukraine. we’re watching issues like troop movements very closely. We’re working closely with the Ukrainian government but we remain on a political issue here.

TAPPER: It doesn’t look like what the administration is trying to do in Ukraine is working. Can you point to success with respect to the Ukraine policy?

PSAKI: We’ve put in place several rounds of sanctions.

TAPPER: But they are not working, Jen.

PSAKI: Well, they are working. The facts on the ground, the impact on their economy is a striking difference from what they are saying.

I think this “name on success” may become a recurring question for the State Department. And, all together now: Awww.

Update (AP): Actual quote from the State Department’s actual spokesman: “They have not been following their hashtag with actions.”

Tags: diplomacy, hashtag, Jake Tapper, Jen Psaki, John Kerry, putin, sanctions, State Department, Ukraine

Related Posts:

Source from: hotair