White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby broke down in tears when discussing the horror perpetrated by Hamas on Israeli citizens.
Kirby was speaking with CNN’s Jake Tapper, who asked him about some of the images Tapper had been showing in his show The Lead” only a few minutes before.
Starting to cry, Kirby stammered, “Yes. I’m sorry, it’s very difficult to look at these images, Jake, it’s — and the human cost. And these are human beings. They’re family members, they’re friends, they’re loved ones, cousins, brothers, sisters. Yes, it’s difficult. And I apologize.”
White House spokesperson John Kirby breaks down in tears while discussing the horrors from the Irael-Hamas war during an interview with CNN host Jake Tapper.
“I, uh, I, I'm sorry. It’s very, excuse me, very difficult to look at these images, Jake. Uh, it and the, the, the human… pic.twitter.com/L1Si9bnfkK
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) October 10, 2023
“Of course, he has nothing to apologize for,” Tapper replied. “Some of the images I was referring to had to do with elderly people at a bus stop who had been slaughtered. Young women taken, who’s taken hostage, their pants filled with blood, presumably because of being repeatedly raped.”
Nic Robertson, CNN’s international diplomatic editor, then recalled what he had seen:
Yes, Jake, I was hoping we might talk. I’m hit emotionally by listening to the testimony of the people that you were talking to just there because we’ve been there in Re’im and witnessed firsthand what I think they’re talking about that they’ve seen the video images of where people had come out. Those young partygoers at the music festival there had run away from Hamas who were just murdering and slaughtering them in the fields as they ran away.
And they got to their cars and we saw the line of cars and how they were shot up and how they were strewn across the road as people were trying to — were trying to escape and trying to save their lives and drive away. And next to that was one of those rocket shelters. There’s one just here but there was one just there.
And I went to have a look and there were torn up shoes outside. then I could see blood stains as I went inside. And this is why I wanted to speak about it now, because, you know, being there, I’m trying to be professional and I’m trying to tell the story and bear witness to the — to the barbarity and the callous, cruel, cold-blooded, calculated killing that Hamas was ripping upon those poor innocent young people.
But that listening to that conversation you were having there with John Kirby, it puts me in mind to reflect on physically what we saw, so let me explain. Because the smell when you step into the shelter is kind of what hits you first, and you realize that this stuff on the floor is what you fear it is.
It’s blood, and you realize in an instant, looking at the strewn shell casings on the floor, looking at the bullet holes in the concrete in front of you, and you’re sort of, you can understand what happened that people were used to going to these shelters for safety and security from Hamas rockets.
And when Hamas were chasing them, they hoped that there was safety and security in these concrete bunkers. And of course, there wasn’t because we could see what happened. Hamas had gone in there with guns and quite literally shot them. This is a deployment that military hardware going by. I’m going to pause.
Had quite literally shot them in calculated cold blood as they were cowering there on the floor and the bloods on the wall and the bloods on the ceiling and the bullet holes are in the concrete wall and you know in that instant how horrible and how terrible it was. And your conversation brought that back. But I’m moving on.
But I wanted to share that because it’s important for people to understand. But I’ll move on to tonight and what’s happening here where we are now.
“Nic, you don’t actually have to move on,” Tapper said, “You don’t actually have to move on because, look, this is one of the most horrifying terrorist attacks in the history of the world.”