{"id":293682,"date":"2021-07-08T08:05:03","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T05:05:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/en.buradabiliyorum.com\/ap-reporter-spars-with-state-department-over-afghanistan\/"},"modified":"2021-07-08T08:05:03","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T05:05:03","slug":"ap-reporter-spars-with-state-department-over-afghanistan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/buradabiliyorum.com\/en\/ap-reporter-spars-with-state-department-over-afghanistan\/","title":{"rendered":"#AP reporter spars with State Department over Afghanistan"},"content":{"rendered":"

“#AP reporter spars with State Department over Afghanistan<\/strong>”<\/p>\n

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State Department spokesman Ned Price was briefly left tongue-tied Tuesday after another verbal sparring match with Associated Press correspondent Matt Lee.<\/p>\n

Lee, who tangled with Price back in February over the Biden administration\u2019s app<\/a>roach to the controversial Nord Stream 2 pipeline from Russia to Germany \u2014 even accusing Biden appointees of \u201ctaking credit for stuff the previous administration did\u201d \u2014 fired the first rhetorical salvo by asking about the administration\u2019s Afghanistan policy as the final withdrawal of US forces takes place.<\/p>\n

Earlier in the briefing, Price said that when Biden took office, \u201cthere was already an existing agreement between the United States government and the Taliban. And so like it or not, on May 1st the status quo that would have been in place on April 30th was going to change. And so the administration, the president, was confronted with a situation in which on May 1st, because of an agreement that the previous administration negotiated \u2026 that American troops would potentially come under attack starting on May 1st if they remained in the country \u2026 [and] to continue to have a larger number of US military forces in harm\u2019s way was not something that the President was willing to commit to.\u201d<\/p>\n

Moments later, Lee told Price: \u201cThe argument that you guys inherited an agreement with the Taliban that the previous administration concluded and that you had no choice, I don\u2019t understand that.<\/p>\n

\"Associated
Associated Press correspondent Matt Lee spars with Ned Price on July 6, 2021 over Biden\u2019s Afghanistan policy.<\/figcaption>
Twitter<\/a><\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cThis administration inherited plenty from the previous administration that it absolutely reversed,\u201d the reporter added. \u201cAre you saying that you\u2019re not \u2026 confident in your negotiating skills that \u2026 you couldn\u2019t have renegotiated a deal with the Taliban and \u2026 are you saying that the President, in fact, didn\u2019t want to take troops out, didn\u2019t want to withdraw?\u201d<\/p>\n

Price responded by suggesting that Lee was \u201cconfusing different things\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThese are apples and oranges,\u201d the spokesman said. \u201cYes, we changed quite a few US policies across a number of fronts, but I think you would be hard-pressed to find an international agreement that the United States signed on to during the last administration that this administration has jettisoned, done away with.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"State
State Department spokesperson Ned Price sparred with Lee in February over the administration\u2019s approach to the Nord Stream 2 pipeline<\/figcaption>
AP<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHow about the Geneva protocol on the anti-abortion stuff?\u201d asked Lee, referring to a declaration signed by the US and 33 other countries<\/a> last year that states \u201cthere is no international right to abortion.\u201d Biden removed the US from the declaration<\/a> in January.<\/p>\n

Price, attempting to continue his earlier answer to Lee\u2019s question, plowed on: \u201cThis was the point that we have made on any number of steps about the importance of the durability of American foreign policies \u2013 American foreign policy across administrations.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cHow about the agreements with the Northern Triangle, with Mexico and the Northern Triangle [on illegal immigration]?\u201d Lee persisted. \u201cThose are international agreements that you guys jettisoned.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese, these are \u2013\u201d Lee began before saying,\u201d Matt, uh, no. I-I think \u2013\u201c<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, you just challenged me to come up with an international agreement that the previous administration signed that you guys have walked away from,\u201d Lee retorted, \u201cand I just gave you, I think, three.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe previous administration had its own policies,\u201d said a seemingly recovered Price. \u201cThis administration has different policies across a number of fronts. But this administration also understands the importance of when the United States signs its name and gives its word in the context of a formal international agreement, especially one where the stakes are profound for \u2026 the American people, including our service members, deployed service members, that\u2019s something that we take very seriously.\u201d<\/p>\n

Video of the exchange was widely shared on Twitter<\/a>, including by former acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell and Rep. Dan Crenshaw<\/a> (R-Texas).\n <\/div>\n