On Monday’s Today, co-host Savannah Guthrie grilled Secretary of State John Kerry on the United States’ strategy to defeat ISIS yet the NBC host failed to question Kerry on his recent inflammatory comments in which he suggested a rationale existed for the terrorists that attacked Charlie Hebdo's headquarters in January.
In addition to Guthrie failing to ask Kerry about his supposed legitimization of the Charlie Hebdo attacks, it took NBC nearly 48 hours to initially cover the secretary of state’s remarks last week when correspondent Peter Alexander devoted a mere 33 seconds to Kerry’s gaffe. ABC and CBS have yet to mention the secretary of state’s comments once on either its morning or evening newscasts.
Guthrie’s omission of Kerry’s controversial comments was the only problematic portion of her tough interview with the secretary of state in which the NBC anchor repeatedly challenged the Obama administration’s strategy to defeat ISIS. After the Today co-anchor asked Kerry about the likelihood of another terrorist attack in the near future, Guthrie pressed the secretary of state to admit that the U.S. strategy against ISIS was not working:
Let's talk about this strategy against ISIS. In recent days ISIS has managed to pull off attacks in Paris, in Beirut and brought down a Russian jetliner. By definition, doesn't that just show that U.S. policy is not working, that there needs to be a better strategy?
The NBC anchor also hit Kerry on the administration’s ISIS strategy and even pointed out how former Obama officials have acknowledged the U.S. isn’t doing enough to defeat the terrorist organization:
The president talks about his critics popping off and saying they have a better idea, but he's getting criticism from former members of his administration, Leon Panetta, the former CIA director and defense secretary, Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state. A top counterterrorism official in his administration Michael Vickers as well as Dianne Feinstein who is now the Intel chair of the Senate saying it's not sufficient. It's not enough, and it's not happening fast enough.
See relevant transcript below.
NBC’s Today
November 23, 2015
SAVANNAH GUTHRIE: Secretary of State John Kerry is with us exclusive from Abu Dhabi. Mr. Secretary, good morning. And let me ask you about the security situation here in the United States. Administration officials have said there's no specific credible threat. On the other hand, officials in Paris likely would have said the same thing the day before those attacks. How confident are you in assuring the American public that there isn't a threat that is imminent?
JOHN KERRY: Well, I can assure you that we don't have a specific threat stream or specific evidence in front of us, but there is always, as we've said to people for years, the threat of some actor, some lone wolf person, someone who slipped through. That's the world we're living in today, and we understand that. Ever since 9/11 many experts across the United States, without regard to political party or to elections, have consistently said to us it's probably not a question of if. It's a question of when.
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GUTHRIE: Let's talk about this strategy against ISIS. In recent days ISIS has managed to pull off attacks in Paris, in Beirut and brought down a Russian jetliner. By definition, doesn't that just show that U.S. policy is not working, that there needs to be a better strategy?
KERRY: What it shows is that ISIL has not yet been defeated, and we understand that. Regrettably for four years this war in Syria has been going on and people have been traveling from all over the world to the amazement of many people, but they have been traveling even from the United States to go fight in Syria. So some people have returned to their homelands, and they have been taught the trade craft of terror regrettably, so, no. We've only had the coalition against Daesh for one year now. We put that coalition together a year ago when Daesh started to move through the region.
GUTHRIE: But Mr. Secretary --
KERRY: And the fact is that during that period of time about -- let me just finish -- about 25% of their territory that they controlled has been taken away from them. Leadership has been eliminated the from the battlefield. Whole towns and communities have been eliminated. The answer is no, it has to be picked up. The pace has to be picked up and more needs to be done, and everybody understands that.
GUTHRIE: You know, it’s the picked up territory in other countries, they have expanded into other countries during this time that we've been fighting them. The president talks about his critics popping off and saying they have a better idea, but he's getting criticism from former members of his administration, Leon Panetta, the former CIA director and defense secretary, Hillary Clinton, his former secretary of state. A top counterterrorism official in his administration Michael Vickers as well as Dianne Feinstein who is now the Intel chair of the Senate saying it's not sufficient. It's not enough, and it's not happening fast enough.
