During Wednesday’s State Department press briefing, spokeswoman Jen Psaki took a little dig at the Fox News Channel before going on to toss a word salad in defense of President Obama.
Obama had just used an appearance in Estonia to give three different takes on what to do about the IS threat, one of which was to “shrink” the Islamic State so that it becomes a “manageable problem.” His own vice president didn’t buy that, and contradicted it almost immediately.
Psaki’s dig itself was petty and inappropriate for a government spokeswoman to deliver in a discussion of a serious national security threat.
Wednesday night, Fox’s Bill O’Reilly hosted a discussion with reporter James Rosen. Rosen had quizzed Psaki about the president’s “manageable problem,” eliciting the jumble of nonsense that Psaki came up with.
During that discussion, O’Reilly stated the perfectly obvious — that Psaki is “out of her depth” and lacks the “gravitas for the job.”
O’Reilly is by no means the first to make that observation. Psaki moved to the State Department straight from the hyperpartisan Obama campaign. She has proven unable to drop her partisanship even in US diplomacy, as evidenced by her cheap shots at Fox.
Today, State’s deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf declared WAR! But not on the Islamic State.
On a fellow American.
.@statedeptspox explains foreign policy w/ intelligence & class. Too bad we can't say the same about @oreillyfactor: http://t.co/n1I5B6kheF
— Marie Harf (@marieharf) September 4, 2014
Reaction to Harf has been justifiably unkind.
@marieharf @statedeptspox @oreillyfactor My Lord. Have you no shame. The press doing its job really bothers the State Dept. Classless. Dumb.
— Ben Aksar (@BenAksar) September 4, 2014
@marieharf @statedeptspox Sad day in America when the babies who work for the government blame a news organization for their own ineptitude
— Beatlegal09 (@Beatlegal09) September 4, 2014
@marieharf @statedeptspox Erasing all doubt over whom you consider the real enemy.
— S D Winkler (@sdwinkler) September 4, 2014
.@marieharf You are giving blondes a bad name
https://t.co/21U0Ga1lCE
— Sandy (@RightGlockMom) September 4, 2014
The State Department’s spokeschildren need a time-out.
