Despite previous denials, the US State Department has acknowledged that John Kerry was out on a private yacht while Mohamed Morsi was being toppled in Egypt.
Earlier, the Secretary of State’s staff flatly denied the CBS News report that Kerry was spotted on the yacht “Isabel” in Nantucket, Mass. Now it has been acknowledged that he was on board “briefly.” The Kerry sighting was tweeted by CBS This Morning senior producer Mosheh Oinounou.
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki subsequently issued this clarification: “While he was briefly on his boat on Wednesday, Secretary Kerry worked around the clock all day including participating in the President’s meeting with his national security council.” Earlier, Psaki had insisted that “Any report or tweet that he was on a boat is completely inaccurate,” according to Politico .
In addition, Psaki claimed Kerry spoke on the phone with “Norwegian Foreign Minister Eade, Qatari Foreign Minister al-Attiyah,Turkish Foreign Minister Davutoglu, Egyptian Constitution Party President ElBaradei and five calls Ambassador Patterson on that day alone and since then he continued to make calls to leaders including Emirati Foreign Minister bin Zayed, Prime Minister Netanyahu, and Egyptian Foreign Minister Amr.”
Given today’s technology, it’s not necessarily a given that Kerry would have to be in Washington during this overseas crisis. You might remember, however, how the news media would come unglued each time President George W. Bush would go to his Texas ranch, as if that location was not outfitted with a state-of-the-art communications system.
John Kerry, the former US Senator from Massachusetts, became Secretary of State on February 1; he replaced Hillary Clinton in that job.
A @CBSThisMorning producer just spotted Secretary of State Kerry on yacht in the Nantucket Boat Basin. No response when she shouted “Morsi”
— Mosheh Oinounou (@Mosheh) July 3, 2013
State Dept issues correction, acknowledges original @CBSThisMorning report that Kerry was aboard his boat “briefly” in Nantucket Weds
— Mosheh Oinounou (@Mosheh) July 5, 2013
This is not the first time that John Kerry’s Nantucket vacationing occurred at a potentially inopportune time. Watch this notable commercial from the 2004 presidential campaign when the former senator ran for president against Bush.
[top image via Theodore Littleton / Shutterstock.com ]
