As we told you on Monday, the White House marked the 22nd anniversary of the 9/11 attacks by having President Biden deliver a speech in Alaska while also announcing a partnership with Saudi Arabia, all while finalizing a deal to unfreeze billions of dollars for Iran in return for the regime agreeing to a prisoner swap.
Quite the 9/11 day of remembrance:
The Biden administration informed Congress on Monday that it has taken concrete steps to carry out a prisoner exchange with Iran, issuing a waiver that will give Tehran access to $6 billion in Iranian oil revenue that had been blocked by U.S. sanctions, according to a State Department document sent to Congress and obtained by NBC News.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken last week issued a sweeping waiver to international banks allowing the transfer of $6 billion in frozen Iranian funds from South Korea to Qatar without the threat of U.S. sanctions, according to the State Department report notifying Congress of its decision. Iran will then be permitted to use the funds to buy food, medicine or other humanitarian items allowed under U.S. economic sanctions.
Ahead of Karine Jean-Pierre coming out to dodge and deflect questions, John Kirby took to the podium to try and defend this deal.
First off, Kirby insisted it wasn't a ransom of any kind:
JOHN KIRBY: "This is not a payment of any kind. It's not ransom!" pic.twitter.com/oeANmPkYm2
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2023
Kirby's entire spin was basically "hey, Iran's a bad actor already so it's not like they'll be much worse if we give them access to another few billion dollars:
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"How is this not incentivizing bad actors...in the future to detain more Americans?!"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2023
KIRBY: "Bad actors...don't need any incentive...to detain Americans...We have to accept the reality that it could happen again in the future!" pic.twitter.com/n9FHeJED7c
JOHN KIRBY: "Won't this just free up funds for [Iran] to continue to do bad behavior? They've been participating in bad behavior for a long, long time!" pic.twitter.com/y4FQFB0mg0
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2023
"They've always been bad, it's just that now they're bad with $6 billion more dollars."
Yikes.
.@JacquiHeinrich: "Didn't they also get five Iranians?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) September 13, 2023
JOHN KIRBY: "Yeah."@JacquiHeinrich: "Then why did we need to add $6 billion dollars on top of that?!"
JOHN KIRBY: "This is the deal that we were able to strike." pic.twitter.com/7hy36Mj0Eg
These people certainly do like making "deals" with the world's number one state sponsor of terrorism.
They negotiated with terrorists and the terrorists won.
— Lilly Wilson (@RealLillyWilson) September 13, 2023
Iran is going to start kidnapping Americans where ever they can find them. Seems like a very profitable endeavor for them. https://t.co/pYkJh6RWLt
— Liz Mac (@TheLizMac) September 13, 2023
No. That's the deal the Iranians wanted, and this clown show of an administration capitulated. https://t.co/vSUl3LQtZg
— Extremist Elmer F Gantry (@f_gantry) September 13, 2023
The same John Kirby & Biden propagandist who said he saw no chaos at #AbbeyGate from his “perch”. https://t.co/cDssNuzn2Z
— ShesWithBruce (@ShesWithBruce) September 13, 2023
Unbelievable.
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