Back in Washington, the Obama administration scrambled to grasp and then respond to Karzai’s bombshell. Secretary of State John Kerry called Karzai twice, once late Tuesday night and once Wednesday morning, to try to smooth over the latest rift between the U.S. and Afghan governments.
President Obama, in Berlin to make a major speech on nuclear arms reductions and transatlantic relations, was confronted with the diplomatic mess during his press conference alongside German Chancellor Angela Merkel…
Back in Washington, the administration’s national security public affairs bureaucracy was in fill damage control mode. The Daily Beast obtained an interagency email sent by the National Security Staff Spokesperson Laura Lucas to officials at the State Department and Pentagon. The email laid out the talking points and also warned the agencies not to elaborate.
“Because we’re also seeing breaking news that the Afghan are pulling support for Doha, NSS guidance is that other principals and briefers refer to/quote the President’s remarks today and not put more out there,” Lucas wrote. “This is just going to a fast-moving train for a while and its best for now to stick to principles and decline to comment on every twist and turn.”
In one of the most brutal State Department press conferences since State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki took over last month, State Department press corps reporters pressed again and again for an explanation as to what went so wrong and how the U.S. and Karzai could be on such different pages.
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