Fox News White House correspondent Peter Doocy pressed Security Council spokesman John Kirby on President Joe Biden’s Iran policy, suggesting that he might want to take it a step further than simply the word “don’t” going forward.
At Monday’s press briefing, the first since Iran launched a direct attack on Israel over the weekend, Doocy pointed to the fact that Iran had acted in defiance of Biden’s warning — “Don’t” — issued late last week.
WATCH:
DOOCY TIME: “John, has President Biden considered maybe beefing up the public Iran posture to be more than just one word?”
WH’s John Kirby: “You — you’re referring to, ‘don't’?”
Doocy: “Yeah.”
Kirby: “And so, let's —”
Doocy: “Because he said —”
Kirby: “— talk about —”… pic.twitter.com/KufejLZFnX
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) April 15, 2024
“John, has President Biden considered maybe beefing up the public Iran posture to be more than just one word?” Doocy asked Kirby.
“You — you’re referring to ‘don’t’?” Kirby clarified.
“Yeah,” Doocy replied.
“And so, let’s — talk about —” Kirby said.
“Because he said ‘don’t’ and they did it anyway,” Doocy added. “So now what?”
“Let’s talk about — what we did. Peter. Let’s talk about ‘don’t’ and did,” Kirby continued. “Let’s talk about Saturday night. He made it clear that he didn’t want to see escalation in the region.”
Doocy interrupted, saying, “And yet, there was.”
“Eh, let me finish. He added military resources to the region right after October 7 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, fighters — fighter squadron that was able to shoot down drones and that’s what we did,” Kirby said.
Kirby went on to argue that Iran had “utterly failed” in its attempt to attack Israel, noting that despite the barrage of hundreds of drones and missiles, only a few had made it through Israel’s defenses.
“Yes, they fired an unprecedented amount of munitions, but how much of a success did they have, Peter? None. Zero,” Kirby added. “It was an embarrassing failure for the Supreme Leader, for the IRGC.”