An Associated Press reporter on Tuesday challenged a State Department spokesperson to name an achievement from an initiative launched under former Secretary Hillary Clinton.
Spokeswoman Jen Psaki was discussing the start of the second Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review (QDDR), a general assessment of the department’s progress and opportunities.
Reporter Matthew Lee took the opportunity to grill Psaki on the first QDDR, which was started under Clinton’s tenure.
“Off the top of your head, can you identify one tangible achievement that the last QDDR resulted in?” he asked.
Lee continued to pepper Psaki with questions about the initiative until she finally responds that she was not at the department during the first review.
“Well, as you know, I’ve only been here since it was concluded,” she said. “So I’m sure there are a range of things that were put into place that I’m not even aware of were a result.”
“I won’t hold my breath,” Lee concluded.
According to the Washington Post’s Erik Wemple, Lee has a history of hounding State Department spokespersons with similar lines of questioning.
Psaki followed-up on the exchange on Wednesday. She listed a few of the program’s accomplishments to the Washington Post.
She said that a “stronger emphasis was placed on trade promotion investments and leveling the economic playing field.” She also said that the department achieved “a fuller integration of women and girls into our policy framework planning and budgeting, program monitoring and evaluation and management and training” and reorganized “the undersecretary for economic growth, energy and the environment.”
Watch the full exchange from Tuesday:
Ass. Press reporter…
Bucking for a job @ Fox
We left Iraq.
Ah, the liberal media… sneering openly at the very idea that Hillary could have accomplishments, while waiting to turn and fawn on GOP nonentities for spewing paranoid brain-rot.
As a long-time journalist, I’m amazed at his lack of decorum and the personalized way in which he presents himself. Doesn’t even pretend to be dispassionate or fair.