Kerry: 'I Fault My Country For... Not Stepping Up Sufficiently, Financially and Otherwise'

    Secretary of State John Kerry received the Medal for Leadership from the London-based Benjamin Franklin House last week for his work as a US diplomat, but took the opportunity to scold his country for "not stepping up sufficiently, financially and otherwise" to deal with world problems. The remarks seem curious coming in the context of the closing months of Kerry's fours years as secretary of state and Barack Obama's eight years as president.
    Kerry spoke of population growth, climate change and global "conflict and governance" issues, but assured his audience that "[a]ll of this is manageable if we lead, if we step up, if the Western world will do the things that we have in our capacity to do".

And the world right now is in need of leadership as never before, perhaps. I can’t – hard to say “never before” when you’re in London and Winston Churchill did what he did, but we have serious, monumental kinds of problems that we face, which is a clash of technology and modernity and culture and religion, and a group of people who are so nihilistic that there’s not even an ideology around which they organize themselves. They just want to destroy and take you back to a place where you have to live according to what they say and what they ordain, and it changes. Who knows when or how – there’s no rhyme or reason except for their brutality and their hate for people who represent something different.

So I look at a world where the population is going to go from 6 billion to 9 billion, where the planet is warming at a rate that is beyond alarming, where we see conflict and governance that are deeply troubling, notwithstanding our best efforts to build capacity and so forth. So – but all of this is changeable. All of this is manageable if we lead, if we step up, if the Western world will do the things that we have in our capacity to do. And I fault my country and others for, frankly, not stepping up sufficiently, financially and otherwise. We’re the richest country on the face of the planet. We have $18 trillion economy, yet we put only one penny of every single dollar that we spend into everything we do around the world. It doesn’t make sense when you see millions of children who need to be educated, people who need to be kept out of the clutches of these nihilists. It’s a major challenge. [emphasis added]

    The secretary of state also appeared to take a veiled shot at Britain's decision to leave the European union:

And finally, I’m glad to receive this because I believe that this is a special moment in world history where regardless of how you manage Brexit, we need to show leadership together going forward on every issue from climate change to the oceans, which you mentioned, Sir Bob, to the vexing challenge of religious exploitation and terrorism. [emphasis added]

    Kerry noted he was "really honored to receive this [award] for probably – well, several reasons, but first and foremost the special relationship between [Britain and the US]," and that while he "will soon be leaving being Secretary, [this award] will stay with me as a down payment on the things I need to do with the rest of my life."

John Kerry: "I'm Thinking, 2016"

    Secretary of State John Kerry's speech at the groundbreaking ceremony for the US Diplomacy Center in Washington DC Wednesday included an intriguing aside that appeared to reference the upcoming 2016 elections. Kerry spoke after remarks by each of the five former secretaries of state in attendance: Henry Kissinger, James Baker, III, Madeleine Albright, Colin Powell, and Hillary Clinton (Condoleezza Rice and George Shultz were not present.) After extolling the accomplishments of each of the five former top diplomats, Kerry said, "Join me, all of you, in thanking five of our six living former secretaries of state... [applause] They all look so great, it makes me -- I'm thinking, 2016, OK... [laughter]" The full event video is at the link, and a clip of Kerry's aside is below:

http://video.state.gov/en/top-stories/video/3765684474001/groundbreaking-ceremony-for-the-us-diplomacy-center/s~creationDate/p~1/?p

    Although his remark was apparently in jest, Kerry of course has had presidential aspirations, winning the Democratic nomination in 2004 but ultimately losing to George W. Bush. At age 73 on inauguration day in 2017, Kerry would be the oldest president to assume his first term in the White House. (Reagan was older when reelected in 1984.) Kerry is about three years older than a more likely 2016 candidate present at Wednesday's ceremony, Hillary Clinton, but so far Clinton has declined to make known her aspirations.
    Kerry had glowing words for Mrs. Clinton during his speech, saying, "Hillary Clinton came to the state department to rebuild alliances and restore our place in the world at a time when people were questioning it... and breathed new life into old partnerships..." Kerry's praise of Clinton seemed to come at the expense of her immediate predecessor Condoleezza Rice, George W. Bush's secretary of state during his second term, although Kerry did not mention Rice during his remarks.
    A state department spokesperson said that a scheduling conflict prevented Rice from attending Wednesday's ceremony, and that George Shultz (who will turn 94 in December) had also been invited but did not attend, though no reason was given. The spokesperson also said that Kerry simply misspoke when referencing "six living former secretaries of state" when in fact there are seven.

Note: A version of this post first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Kerry: Guns in U.S. "Scare" Foreign Students, Yet They Keep Coming

   In an interview broadcast on CNN Monday, Secretary of State John Kerry said that one of the reasons foreign students are increasingly avoiding the United States is the fear of gun violence:

We had an interesting discussion about why fewer students are coming to, particularly from Japan, to study in the United States, and one of the responses I got from our officials from conversations with parents here is that they're actually scared. They think they're not safe in the United States and so they don't come.

    CNN adds:

[Kerry] noted Japan's restrictive gun laws – which prevent private ownership of nearly all firearms, including handguns – and said the country was safer "where people are not running around with guns." 

    CNN also noted an Institute of International Education (IIE) report enumerating the decline in students from Japan coming to the United States: 

In 2011, Japan sent 21,290 students to study in the United States, making it the seventh largest country of origin for international scholars. That was down 14% from the previous year, according to numbers from the Institute of International Education. 

Figures have shown international study is down markedly among Japanese students to all destinations, including the United States. Experts have attributed the decline to Japan's low birthrate, the expense of foreign study in a poor economy, and a desire among Japanese young people to remain at home rather than venture to other countries.

    What neither Kerry nor CNN noted, however, were the other statistics reported by the IIE (via Bloomberg):

The total number of international students in the U.S. climbed 4.7 percent in the 2010-2011 academic year to 723,277, with the fastest growth coming from China [23 percent increase to 157,558] and Saudi Arabia, which sent 22,704 students, a 44 percent increase.

    The increase from China is a stark contrast to Japan's decrease.  Both Asian countries have restrictive gun laws, yet students in China do not seem to harbor the same anxieties about gun violence that Kerry attributes to those in Japan.

    An even broader measure of foreigners attitudes, the Japanese in particular, towards travel to and residence in the United States can be gleaned from a July 2012 report issued by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) [emphasis added]:

During 2011, there were 159 million nonimmigrant admissions to the United States according to DHS work-load estimates. These admissions included tourists and business travelers from Canada, Mexican nationals with Border Crossing Cards, and I-94 admissions.  I-94 admissions accounted for 33 percent (53.1 million) of the total admissions (see Figure 1). The majority (87 percent) of I-94 admissions were temporary visitors for business and pleasure, while 6.4 percent were temporary workers and families and 3.4 percent were students. The leading countries of citizenship for I-94 admissions were Mexico, the United Kingdom, and Japan.

    Although the DHS report says that some of the increase can be attributed to the way entries and re-entries by the same individual are counted, by almost any measure in this DHS report, visitors to the United States are on the rise.  Secretary Kerry's remarks on gun violence come at a time the Obama administration and its supporters are increasing pressure on Congress to pass gun control legislation.  A more comprehensive look at the facts behind Kerry's remarks does not bolster the administration's case as well as the secretary may have intended.

Note: I had this post ready to publish last night, but Glenn Kestler, Fact Checker Extraordinaire at the Washington Post, beat me to it this morning.

John Kerry and Egypt's "Versions" of Democracy

    Secretary of State John Kerry announced on Sunday the release of a quarter of a billion dollars in aid to Egypt. The Associated Press reports:

U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry on Sunday rewarded Egypt for President Mohammed Morsi's pledges of political and economic reforms by releasing $250 million in American aid to support the country's "future as a democracy."
Yet Kerry also served notice that the Obama administration will keep close watch on how Morsi, who came to power in June as Egypt's first freely elected president, honors his commitment and that additional U.S. assistance would depend on it.

    The day before, the secretary of state hinted that the Obama administration was continuing to throw its weight behind Morsi in some curiously worded but little reported remarks at the Marriott Zamalek Hotel in Cairo. Kerry had meet with some opposition leaders on Saturday and a reporter apparently caught Kerry at his hotel after the meeting. There is a partial transcript of a reporter's impromptu question and Kerry's answer on the State Department's website [emphasis added]:

QUESTION: (In progress) heard his conversation with the opposition members. Did you hear anything from them that would suggest that they’re going to renounce their boycott of the election and actually take part? 

SECRETARY KERRY: No, I heard very passionate people who are deeply committed to Egypt and to their version of the democracy that they fought for in their revolution. And I completely understand that. I wanted to hear from them. I explored their strategy and thoughts. 

They’re deeply committed to human rights, to democracy, to freedom of expression, and to a real political process in which they feel they have a voice. America supports all of those things. And so listening to them was really important. There was a divergence of views in terms of the adamancy, but they all shared a sense that they needed to be more part of the process, more included, and they recognized the economic challenge, but they believe there’s also a need to fill the promise of democracy. And so do we. We believe that too.

     There's no explanation of what Kerry meant by the remark.


Note: This story first appeared at The Weekly Standard.

Hillary Clinton for President - by Cynthia McFadden of ABC News

    This could well be the most embarrassingly fawning interview with a government official I have ever read. Yesterday, Cynthia McFadden of ABC News conducted the last TV interview with Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State.  But if McFadden has anything to say about it, it won't be the last interview of Mrs. Clinton as a government official. It's no wonder the State Department posted the interview on its website.  Here are just a few samples:

QUESTION: When you conceded defeat in the primary [in 2008], you made a famous speech in which you said that there were 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling. 

SECRETARY CLINTON: Right. 

QUESTION: If, in the course of the next couple of years it appears, as it does appear right now, that you might be the person who could actually break through that glass ceiling and become the first female president of this country, would you feel a certain obligation to seize that mantle?

* * * * * * * 

QUESTION: I’d just like to ask you one other question about your health. I know that there’s no plans for future public service, but if there were to be, would you feel comfortable making a pledge that you would release whatever records? 

* * * * * * * 

QUESTION: Secretary Clinton, thank you so much for talking to us. 

SECRETARY CLINTON: Thank you, Cynthia. Good to talk to you. 

QUESTION: As Jefferson looks over our shoulder, who I would only point out was Secretary of State who went on to become President. 

SECRETARY CLINTON: I’ve heard that. (Laughter.) 

QUESTION: Thank you.

    One wonders if, after the microphones were turned off, Cynthia McFadden made some discrete inquires about the availability of a press secretary position in the event of a future Hillary Clinton administration. Come to think of it, I'm surprised she'd wait until the mics were off.

Hillary Clinton: "Retirement"? Perhaps not...

    At a flag ceremony for the United States Ambassador to Ireland, Dan Rooney, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had this exchange with a reporter:

QUESTION: So things – you’re ready – you’re back in the swing of things - 

SECRETARY CLINTON: I am back -- 

QUESTION: -- even though it’s closing down your operation? 

SECRETARY CLINTON: Yeah. It’s obviously somewhat bittersweet, because I’ve had the most extraordinary experience, and I work with just an amazing team of people. But I’m very much looking forward to doing everything we can these last few weeks to resolve and finish up wherever possible and then to have a very smooth, seamless transition to Senator Kerry to continue the work. 

QUESTION: And then retirement? 

SECRETARY CLINTON: I don’t know that that’s the word I would use, but certainly stepping off the very fast track for a little while.

     However, Mrs. Clinton has vehemently denied her intention to ever run for President again.  Via Business Insider from March 2011:

Q- Would you like to be president of the United States?
No
Q- Why not?
Because I have the best job I could ever have. This is a moment in history where it is almost hard to catch your breath. There are both the tragedies and disasters that we have seen from Haiti to Japan and there are the extraordinary opportunities and challenges that we see right here in Egypt and in the rest of the region. So I want to be part of helping to represent the United States at this critical moment in time, to do everything I can in support of the president and our government and the people of our country to stand for our values and our ideals, to stand up for our security, which has to remain first and foremost in my mind and to advance America's interests. And there isn't anything that I can imagine doing after this that would be as demanding, as challenging or rewarding.
Q- President of the United States?
You know, I had a wonderful experience running and I am very proud of the support I had and very grateful for the opportunity, but I'm going to be, you know, moving on.
Q- I asked my viewers and followers on Twitter to send questions and a lot of them said, "Ask her if she'll run in 2016 for the presidency." A lot of folks would like to you to do that.
Well that's very kind, but I am doing what I want to do right now and I have no intention or any idea even of running again. I'm going to do the best I can at this job for the next two years.

    The "very fast track" that Mrs. Clinton is getting off for "a little while" apparently does not include another campaign.