Ex-CIA Officer Compares John Kerry to Taliban For Efforts to Save Iran Deal
Former Secretary of State John Kerry has been trying to rescue the Iran nuclear deal, meeting with foreign leaders while urging the U.S. to stay in. And one guest on Fox News likened Kerry’s actions to Taliban activity.
Buck Sexton, a former CIA officer, made the remarks to host Brian Kilmeade Tuesday, condemning what he called “shadow diplomacy” by the ex-secretary of state.
“This is something we expect from the Taliban to have a shadow government in place,” Sexton said. “Not from our own former secretary of state. I mean, this is really beyond the pale, and, you know, to have meetings like this, this is not casual, this is not someone who’s just talking with his former counterparts. He’s negotiating from the other side of the table.”
Within past weeks, Kerry has spoken with Italian EU official Federica Mogherini, Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif and German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, according to The Boston Globe. The talks are reportedly to figure out a way to keep the U.S. in the Iran deal made under the Obama administration, which Kerry has ardently supported.
Sexton said Kerry “needs a reminder” he’s no longer secretary of state, and that he “is wrong on every conceivable level here.”
“I think he is wrong on the substance, which people can disagree on but the Iran deal has some fatal flaws in it. It has from the start,” Sexton said. “Ballistic missiles, the sun set provisions…some of the sites that do not actually get inspections. We can disagree on that. That all said, there is also a bad faith element here. You can only have one secretary of state, one administration at a time. And for a former secretary of state to step in here, Brian, and act like the shadow secretary of state really undermines the authority of the people who are supposed to be engaged in these kinds of negotiations.”
President Donald Trump, who has spoken out against the Iran deal on social media and to the press, will announce his decision on the pact from the White House this afternoon.
Watch the clip above, via Fox News.
[Image via screengrab]
