SKEWING THE NEWS: Retired Navy Admiral John Kirby, Coordinator for Strategic Communications

 

He is the Press Secretary for the U.S. Department of Defense frequently appearing in The White House Newsroom - yesterday was a busy day flooding the airwaves:

National Security

Ayman al-Zawahiri's death is a significant blow to al-Qaida, Kirby says

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August 2, 20227:19 AM ET

Heard on Morning Edition

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NPR's Asma Khalid talks to John Kirby, coordinator for strategic communications at the White House's National Security Council, about the death of one-time al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahiri.

White House: ‘What’s the drama?’ about Pelosi’s Taiwan trip amid China threats

By

Steven Nelson

August 1, 2022 4:53pm

White House National Security Council spokesman John Kirby denied Monday that there was any “drama” around House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s planned visit to Taiwan after a reporter pointed out that President Biden publicly said last month the Pentagon wanted her to cancel the trip.

Pelosi (D-Calif.) is expected to visit the island nation Tuesday aboard a US military jet despite multiple Chinese threats — including one to possibly shoot down Pelosi’s plane.

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Briefing Room

Press Briefing by Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and NSC Coordinator for Strategic Communications John Kirby

July 27, 2022 • Speeches and Remarks

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Good afternoon, everybody.

Q    Good afternoon.

MS. JEAN-PIERRE:  Apologies for the delay.  I so apologize for that.  But thank you for all being here. 

We know there’s a lot of interest today on some international issues out there, so we wanted to make sure that we had someone from NSC, so I brought over John Kirby from NSC.  St- — I always mess this up.  (Laughs.)  Communications Strategy Coordinator. 

 Okay.  All yours, Kirby.  Sorry about that.

 MR. KIRBY:  Thanks, Karine.  No worries.

 Okay, everybody, just a couple of things at the top here.  Today, I think — and you might have heard Secretary Blinken talk about this earlier — officials from the U.S. Embassy in Moscow attended the sixth session of the court hearing of American citizen Brittney Griner, who is being wrongfully detained under intolerable circumstances. 

 I want to reiterate that President Biden has been clear about the need to bring home every American who is held hostage or wrongfully detained abroad, and that includes, of course, Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.

 Now, months ago, President Biden directed his national security team to pursue every avenue to bring Brittney home safely to her family, her friends, her loved ones, her teammates.  The U.S. government continues to work aggressively, pursuing every avenue, to make that happen.

 Now, as part of those efforts, we made a substantial offer to secure the release of Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner and to bring them home, just as Secretary Blinken mentioned earlier. 

 I would add that a high-level administration official, Deputy Homeland Security Advisor Josh Geltzer, spoke today –reached out, I’m sorry, today to both the Whelan and Griner families ahead of Secretary Blinken’s comments.  And he’s going to be having conversations with them later today and tomorrow, as we arrange for them to connect.

 In order to increase the chances for success here, we’re obviously not going to be able to share more publicly about the deal.  I’m sure you all have questions about what this looks like, and I’m sure you can all understand that it’s not going to help us get them home if we’re negotiating in public with you all.  So I’m not going to have any more detail on that.

 But I will say that the President and his team are willing to take extraordinary steps to bring our people home, as we’ve demonstrated with Trevor Reed, and that’s what we’re doing right here.  It’s actively happening now.

 This has been at the top of the mind for the President and for his whole national security team.  He receives regular updates about the status of our negotiations to secure Brittney and Paul’s release, as well as other U.S. nationals who are wrongfully detained or held hostage in Russia and, I might add, around the world as well.

 With that, I’ll take some questions.

 Q    A few questions for you, Kirby.  I just want to make sure: One, this offer was made in June.  Is that right? 

 MR. KIRBY:  It was made several weeks ago.

 Q    Several weeks ago.  And has Russia responded to the offer?  And our indication seems to be that they have not.  And if they have not responded, what do you read into that?

 MR. KIRBY:  Again, I don’t want to get into the details of negotiations, Kaitlan.  I would tell you that the offer has been made, and we certainly hope that Russia will favorably engage on it.  But I don’t want to get into more detail about that.