Fox News’ Peter Doocy and National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby sparred Friday over a damning new report about the U.N.
According to the report, about a dozen United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) employees have been accused of participating in Hamas’ Oct. 7th terror attack against Israel.
As a result, the UNRWA has “severed ties” with the employees and opened an investigation. The Biden administration, meanwhile, has finally paused its funding to UNRWA, better late than never.
During a White House press briefing Friday, Doocy asked Kirby whether he’s changed his mind about something he’d said previously, which was that the administration can’t hold UNRWA “accountable for the depredations of Hamas.”
Kirby, for his part, predictably rushed to the globalist body’s defense.
Listen:
“Certainly it looks as if, Peter — and again, there’s an investigation going on, so I’ll be careful — but it certainly looks as if, there’s cause to be concerned about the actions of some of the members of UNRWA, the UN Relief and Works Agency,” Kirby replied.
“But that does not, and nor should it, impugn the entire agency and the entire, all the body of work that they’re doing. They have helped save literally thousands of lives in Gaza. They do important work. Doesn’t mean that there aren’t some folks in that group that, that need to be punished for potentially these kinds of behavior, but that doesn’t impugn the entire organization,” he added.
Doocy then cut in to note that the allegations against the agency Kirby was defending were bad.
“That’s bad though, if there are 12 people who are accused …,” he said before being cut off by Kirby.
“It’s bad! It’s bad if there’s one!” the State Department spokesperson said.
“And the U.S. is giving them money. How much money?” Doocy quickly pushed back.
John Kirby refuses to condemn the U.S. funded United Nations Relief and Works Agency which has allegedly “been used as stockpiles for weapons” in Gaza.
“UNRWA does important work…”
“We gave them $1,000,000,000!”
“We’re grateful for the work they are doing.” pic.twitter.com/t3kvDe6Ewu
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) January 4, 2024
Kirby then reminded Doocy that the administration has stopped funding UNRWA, to which the Fox News correspondent responded by asking how much the agency had been previously receiving from the U.S.
“I don’t have the dollar figures here, Peter. … I’ll take the question and get back to you. But we have suspended unallocated funds pending the outcome of the investigation,” Kirby said.
It’s at this point that Doocy decided to combine topics by bringing up the crisis along the southern U.S. border.
“Who does this White House vet?” he asked. “Because we know that people coming across the southern border are not vetted. Now we know that people that are getting hundreds of millions of dollars of U.S. money are not being vetted. So, who do you guys check out?”
Excellent question. The answer, as far as anyone can tell, is nobody. But that, of course, is not the answer Kirby coughed up.
‘Special interest aliens’ from Middle East pouring into US by the thousands through southern border https://t.co/9M4JUmUVQr via @BIZPACReview
— BPR based (@DumpstrFireNews) October 11, 2023
“It’s not like we don’t have a process at the border,” he said. “And there is a challenge there. And the president does want to get more Border Patrol agents. But this idea that just there’s no vetting and there’s no proper immigration enforcement going on at the border just does not — does not comport with reality.”
“There’s — a lot of work needs to be done to get better at that. But that’s — put that aside, because that has nothing to do and you know it has nothing to do with UNRWA,” he added.
Doocy wasn’t satisfied with that answer.
“[U]p until today, the U.S. policy then has been ‘we don’t negotiate with terrorists, but we will give them hundreds of millions of dollars,'” he rightly noted.
Kirby wasn’t pleased by this otherwise accurate description.
“Come on now, that’s conflating here,” he whined. “This is not — that’s like saying the whole UNRWA is a terrorist organization. You know, who is a terrorist organization? Hamas, not UNRWA.”
“Now, if they have if the investigation proves that in this case, I think it’s about a dozen employees were assisting Hamas and even to the point of maybe even, you know, involved in hostage taking, then absolutely, they need to be held to account,” he added.
But critics have long, long, long accused UNRWA of itself being a veritable terrorist organization — even before the Oct. 7th terror attack. That’s in fact why the Trump administration stopped funding the group.
UNRWA is a terrorist organization.
— Josh Hammer (@josh_hammer) January 26, 2024
“[The] organization’s employees and classes have repeatedly promoted antisemitism and glorified terrorism despite commitments by management to stop these activities,” according to The Heritage Foundation. “For these and other reasons, the Trump administration announced in 2018 that the U.S. would ‘not make additional contributions to UNRWA.'”
Writers and editors can be contacted at [email protected] with feedback, tips, or corrections.
V. Saxena is a staff writer with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University. Saxena also contributes to BizPac Review.
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