John Kerry and another White House official had a testy interview with a Fox News host on the Iran deal
Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz endured a confrontational interview on "Fox News Sunday" while defending world powers' nuclear deal with Iran.
In a discussion filled with interruptions and back-and-forths, the two White House officials repeatedly accused Fox News host Chris Wallace of asking misleading questions about the Iranian nuclear deal.
"That's not accurate," Kerry said in response to Wallace's very first inquiry.
The Fox anchor asked Kerry about the White House's alleged flip-flop on "anytime, anywhere" inspections of potential nuclear facilities in Iran. The inspection rules in last week's controversial agreement differ between specific nuclear facilities and other sensitive facilities, where Iran could potentially delay inspections by more than three weeks.
"Chris, don't play a game here. The fact is, in arms control, there's no country anywhere on this planet that has 'anywhere, anytime.' There's no such standard within arms-control inspections," Kerry told Wallace. "We never — ever! — had a discussion about 'anywhere, anytime.'"
After Wallace pressed Moniz on his own "anytime, anywhere" remarks, the energy secretary said his quote was being taken out of context.
"Let me clarify," Moniz said. "Let me read the rest of the sentence. I said access 'anytime, anywhere, in the sense of a well-defined procedure and well-defined time window.'"
Kerry also panned another Wallace question about Iran getting "hundreds of billions of dollars" out of the deal.
"First of all, Chris, don't exaggerate. It's not hundreds of billions of dollars — it's $100 billion, approximately," Kerry said as Wallace tried to interject.
"Let me just finish. Chris please. Chris, this is not supposed to be a debate," he continued. "You're supposed to ask a question — we're supposed to be able to answer it. Let me answer your question."
Watch the full interview below:
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