Former Secretary of State John Kerry is used to the mainstream media giving softball questions to him and his political allies.
When CBS News’ Margaret Brennan asked him about the failed Iran nuclear deal on Sunday, that changed — and a visibly angry Kerry attacked CBS for siding with President Donald Trump.
Brennan played a clip of Kerry from 2016 admitting that some of the pallets of cash he ordered flown into Iran would be funneled into terror organizations like the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC).
“I think that some of it will end up in the hands of the IRGC or other entities, some of which are labeled terrorists … I’m not going to sit here and tell you that every component of that could be prevented,” Kerry said four years ago.
“I remember talking to you at the time. Money is fungible,” Brennan said. “Why did you think it was a risk worth taking if you knew the possibility of what would happen with that money?”
“First of all, Margaret, you are an expert in this,” Kerry, clearly upset, responded. “You were there. You know the president’s tweet is a lie. The president tweeted this morning because I am coming on the show, and he knew you would ask the question. Or would push you to ask the question.”
Kerry is referring to a Sunday tweet from Trump that said Kerry gave $150 billion to Iran.
John Kerry got caught essentially admitting that funds given ridiculously to Iran were used to fund attacks on the USA. Only a complete fool would have given that 150 Billion Dollars Plus to Iran. They then went on a Middle East Rampage! @foxandfriends @PeteHegseth
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 12, 2020
The former secretary of state blamed the media for being too soft on Trump.
“You and the media, I think, need to call a lie a lie,” Kerry said. “You know…”
“Mr. Secretary, I asked you that question in 2015 too,” Brennan pointed out.
“No! No, no, no. But let me just finish. You know… yes.,” Kerry responded. “And I’ll answer that. I was saying clearly some money from the budget of Iran is going to go to the IRGC. It always has. That’s no surprise.”
“But the truth is and President Trump … well, he probably doesn’t know this, but the fact is his own defense intelligence agency in 2017 testified to the Congress that very, very little money actually went to the IRGC at all,” he said. “Most of the [$150 billion payment] went to the economy of Iran, which is precisely what I said and what we all said.”
You can see the angry exchange here —
The Horn editorial team