October 28, 2023

John Kirby showed us exactly how an individual should handle questions at the podium—especially tough questions, and not about alternative facts.

Kirby was asked if it was "insensitive" for the President to say that innocents would die and that this was the price of the war. She also asked if President Biden should apologize.

"What's harsh, what's harsh is the way Hamas is using people as human shields," Kirby said. "What's harsh is taking a couple of hundred hostages and leaving families anxious, waiting, and worrying to figure out where their loved ones are."

"What's harsh is dropping in on a music festival and slaughtering a bunch of young people just trying to enjoy an afternoon," he continued. "I could go on and on. That's what's harsh."

"And being honest about the fact that there have been civilian casualties and that there likely will be more is being honest because that's what war is," he said. It's brutal. It's ugly. It's messy."

"I've said that before," he continued. "The President also said that yesterday. Doesn't mean we have to like it. And it doesn't mean that we're dismissing any one of those casualties."

"Each and everyone is a tragedy in its own right," Kirby said. "And each and everyone we should try to prevent. And that is why we're in close contact with our Israeli counterparts to do everything we can to help them minimize the risk to civilians that are in harm's way."

"It would be helpful if Hamas would let them leave," he explained. "Leave their homes. Leave areas. Let them get out of Gaza if they want to leave."

"We know that there are thousands waiting to leave Gaza writ large," he added. "And Hamas is preventing them from doing it. That is what is harsh."

He has a point.

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