“Now that we have, essentially, complete chaos in Yemen, does the White House still believe that Yemen is the model for counter-terrorism strategy?” Karl asked Earnest on Wednesday.

“The White House does continue to believe that a successful counter-terrorism strategy is one that will build up the capacity of the central government to have local fighters on the ground to take the fight to extremists in their own country,” Earnest said, emphasizing the importance of supporting local security forces. “That is a template that has succeeded in mitigating the threat that we face from extremists in place like Yemen and Somalia,” he added.