A White House official was confronted by Fox News' Bill Hemmer Monday on a long list of foreign policy blunders under President Biden's leadership following Iran's direct attack against Israel.
Biden had warned Iran not to attack Israel over the weekend, saying, "Don't," but the Islamic Republic fired 170 drones, more than 30 cruise missiles and more than 120 ballistic missiles towards Israel on Saturday, according to the IDF.
"Joe Biden said, don't do it. But [Iran] did anyway. John Kirby is with us now," Hemmer, co-anchor of Fox News Channel's "America's Newsroom," said while introducing the White House national security communications advisor onto the show.
"You got your hands full," Hemmer said.
"I was looking back at the track record for President Biden. Here's what sticks out: The Afghanistan withdrawal was a mess. We failed to stop Putin from going into Ukraine. The war with Israel and Hamas has been absolutely dreadful and destructive. Again, it's the first time Iran has aimed at Israel. China's military buildup is substantial. And that was just this morning what I came up with. Can you argue that American strength and persuasion is better today than it was four years ago globally?" he continued.
Kirby responded, "Oh yeah. Yeah, 100% I can do that very comfortably."
"Where?" Hemmer followed-up.
"This is a president who understands American leadership on the world stage. He has devoted additional resources, not just militarily, but diplomatically, economically, around the world to advance our national security interests… I mean, American leadership was absolutely vital to helping Israel defend itself," Kirby responded.
Hemmer also asked Kirby about whether the administration plans to reconsider allowing Iran to access billions amid the sanctions waiver on the country.
"Iran has been a pain to your administration. It has been a pain to Israel when you consider its support for Hamas in light of Saturday's events where Iran hit Israel for the first time… Is it time to rethink allowing Iran access to billions of dollars in electricity sales between Iraq and Iran? Will that policy be stopped, sir?" Hemmer asked.
Kirby responded by pointing to the Trump administration.
"That's an item that comes up for extension every few months, Bill, and the previous administration also extended it as have we because the Iraqi people are just so reliant right now on energy, resources from Iran," he said.
The interview followed Kirby pointing the finger at former President Trump for supposedly emboldening Iran on Fox News Channel Sunday.
"It's hard to take a look at what President Biden has done and say that we have somehow gone soft on Iran," Kirby said on "Fox News Sunday." "It was the previous administration that decided to get us out of the Iran deal. And now Iran is so much dramatically closer to a potential nuclear weapon capability than they were before Mr. Trump was elected."
GOP senators have criticized what they see as Biden's continued weakness on deterrence after the Iranian regime ignored his request.
"So much for President Biden telling bad guys ‘Don’t’ actually being an effective deterrent. Every time he says ’Don’t,' they do," Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., wrote in an X post on Saturday.
"Under President Trump, Iran was broke. President Biden gifted them billions of dollars and then naively said 'don’t,'" said Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn. "'Don’t' is not a foreign policy. Joe Biden’s policies have funded Iran’s attack on Israel."
Biden said after Iran's attack, "Israel demonstrated a remarkable capacity to defend against and defeat even unprecedented attacks, sending a clear message to its foes that they cannot effectively threaten the security of Israel."
