John Kirby, a member of the National Security Council, apologized multiple times on Tuesday for making the erroneous claim that the US administration had informed Iraq in advance of attacks on Friday against organizations backed by Iran. This was an uncommon move for a White House spokesman.
Despite Kirby’s claims to the contrary during a press conference immediately following the strikes in response to the killing of three US personnel in Jordan on January 28, Washington did not provide Baghdad with the warning.
Kirby addressed the media, apologizing for the mistake and any uncertainty it caused. The pool of reporters mainly focused on other matters, such as US help to Ukraine.
Again, Kirby sincerely apologized for the mistake, saying it turned out that the information was incorrect. He hoped they’d see he didn’t mean to mislead or do anything wrong.
He said from now on, he would make it a point to be more careful not to spread false information.
Reporters know Kirby for his colorful off-camera comments and a regular role as co-host of White House briefings. Kirby is also being considered for the position of presidential press secretary.
Unlike previous responses from the Biden administration to high-profile gaffes, such as the president’s 2022 public search for the late Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-Ind.) and his subsequent question, “Where’s Jackie?” the current apology takes a different approach- profusely apologetic.
During a press briefing, when asked several questions about Biden’s “seeing dead people” statement, press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre maintained that Walorski was only “top of mind” and flatly denied that Biden erred.
The first press secretary of President Donald Trump, Sean Spicer, supported his boss’s assertion in 2017 that the inauguration had the most significant audience in history, even though images revealed otherwise. This is just one example of how press secretaries from both parties have routinely dug in when confronted with blatantly inaccurate information.