John Kerry Has Some Explaining To Do!

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For years, Republicans have been arguing that John F. Kerry has loose lips unbefitting an American diplomat. Before, it was a strained argument that the former secretary of state had violated the Logan Act by talking to Iran. And now, some Republicans are calling for Kerry’s resignation as President Biden’s climate envoy over leaked audio of Iran’s foreign minister. On the tape, the Iranian official claims Kerry shared secrets with him about the military actions of Israel, a top U.S. ally.

In recent days, the London-based news channel Iran International obtained audio of a private conversation Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif had with an economist. The New York Times reported Sunday on the detail at issue: “Former Secretary of State John Kerry informed him that Israel had attacked Iranian interests in Syria at least 200 times, to his astonishment, Mr. Zarif said.”

It was one paragraph toward the bottom of a longer story about some very interesting things Zarif said about the power structure in Iran, but it quickly blew up on the right. The idea that Kerry was disclosing the secrets of such an important American ally as Israel to an adversary such as Iran would indeed be a big story.

Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) has called for Kerry’s resignation and suggested Kerry committed treason. Former United Nations Ambassador Nikki Haley called it “disgusting” and said it amounted to “stabbing” Israel “in the back.” Former Trump administration secretary of state Mike Pompeo joined the chorus on Tuesday morning. Others followed suit, even after Kerry on Monday night issued a blanket denial of any such conversation.

But others have been more circumspect. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.), while being highly critical, added the caveat, “If this tape is verified.” Sen. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) urged even more caution. “I don’t know if we should trust that tape or not. If it’s true, it’s very damaging,” Graham said. “I like John Kerry, but that would not be helpful, and it would be very problematic if it were true. But let’s wait and see how authentic this is.”

And indeed, there is reason to be skeptical that this was truly the blunder — or worse — that some are making it out to be.

The big one is the timeline. We don’t know exactly when Zarif contends Kerry told him this. But Israel striking Iranian targets in Syria hasn’t been a secret for nearly four years.
In July 2017, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told fellow world leaders on a hot mic that Israel had struck Hezbollah dozens of times in Syria. By August, an Israeli general confirmed Israel had struck Syrian and Hezbollah arms convoys nearly 100 times in the previous five years. And by September 2018, a senior Israeli official upped the number to more than 200, specifically citing Iranian targets struck in the previous two years.

Kerry’s denial is a little different from that of the State Department. Kerry says the conversation never happened, while State Department spokesman Ned Price declined to specifically address the leaked audio while pointing to stories such as the ones above, suggesting this was public knowledge even if Kerry had said it. Those explanations aren’t contradictory, but the emphasis is different.

But let’s say, for argument’s sake, that Kerry did say something along these lines to Zarif (which, again, Kerry denies) but that we simply don’t know when.

If it came before Israel began publicly acknowledging such strikes in mid-2017, that would indeed be problematic. If it came between then and Israel’s acknowledgment of 200 strikes in September 2018, Kerry would at the very least have been sharing a higher number than was public knowledge — though the overall campaign wouldn’t have been a secret at all. If it came after early September 2018, Kerry would have just been saying something that was already public knowledge.

Some responded to Price’s comments by noting that Zarif reportedly expressed astonishment at the 200 number. If this came after the public disclosures, how would a high-ranking Iranian official be so surprised? That’s the big unknown here.

To believe Kerry got ahead of the public disclosure of 200 strikes in the period between August 2017 and September 2018, that would mean Zarif was somehow woefully unfamiliar with the public record on this topic. How could you be astonished by 200 strikes if 100 were already on the record?

And to believe Kerry said this after September 2018 would mean there’s really not much of an issue here at all, beyond Zarif being completely out of the loop

There are many unknowns here, and they might remain unknown. But even with full authentication of the tape, as Graham noted, it’s worth being skeptical about the private gripes of an Iranian leader. Even at that point, given Kerry’s blanket denial, to believe Kerry did what he’s accused of is to take the word of an adversarial foreign leader over an American one.

... There are many unknowns here, and they might remain unknown.  But even with full authentication of the tape, as Graham noted, it’s worth being skeptical about the private gripes of an Iranian leader.  Even at that point, given Kerry's blanket denial, to believe Kerry did what he's accused of is to take the word of an adversarial foreign leader over an American one.

... No. It’s true. And the Clintons made millions!

Public Servants should be held accountable no matter how old the news is.

I really try to take it seriously but it gets very hard when someone leads with a link to Newsmax.

I really try to take it seriously but it gets very hard when someone leads with a link to Newsmax.

Cool. But, what are you going to do about it?



Well, Biden is doing a few things that regressives just hate. Like HIS JOB, and being popular. The "Sleepy Joe" narrative they tried to play up didn't make for a very effective boogeyman, and the majority of voters actually support what he's doing, despite newsmocks desperately pretending otherwise. "Hunter Biden" apparently didn't pay of as well as they thought it would, and every time we investigate russia, we find more ties to trump and his ilk, so lordy knows they don't want to keep poking russia. They have nothing, so now they're frantically digging thru their "greatest hits" to find some more culture war nonsense to enrage their base. They can't go after Bill over Monica, cos we all remember what president babyhands liked to grab, and that would only draw MORE attention to Matt Gaets and his misadventures. As usual, they go for the low hanging fruit, since they're out of vegetables to moan about the gender of.

Could it be that the FBI hasn't "raided Kerry's office" because the FBI doesn't raid people for no reason? Nono, that's silly. CLEARLY it's the A-Blue-Minati covering up their MASSIVE COVERT OPERATION so they can conquer the world, muhahaha! Kinda wild how they have all this power already, but aren't in control yet...

Maybe if they say BENGAZI! 3 times in a mirror, the ghosts of elections past present and future will come and set everything right...

HoNkA hOnKa!! !