The State Department reversed course Friday and confirmed that Secretary of State John Kerry was indeed “briefly” on his yacht in Nantucket Wednesday. The department had previously denied a CBS News report that Kerry was aboard his boat the day Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi was ousted from office.
“While he was briefly on his boat on Wednesday, Secretary Kerry worked around the clock all day including participating in the president’s meeting with his national security council,” spokeswoman Jen Psaki said, as quoted by Politico.
Psaki said Kerry held calls with numerous diplomats, including Egyptian Constitution Party President Mohamed ElBaradei, Egyptian Foreign Minister Mohamed Kamel Amr and five calls total to U.S. Ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson, according to Politico. None of those calls were made aboard the yacht, she said.
A CBS This Morning producer had tweeted a photo of Kerry’s yacht Wednesday and reported that another producer had seen Kerry aboard the boat. Psaki then issued a statement denying the report, affirming that “since his plane touched down in Washington at 4 am, Secretary Kerry was working all day and on the phone dealing with the crisis in Egypt,” according to WBZ.
Below are the CBS producer’s original tweets:
A @CBSThisMorning producer just spotted Secretary of State Kerry on yacht in the Nantucket Boat Basin. No response when she shouted “Morsi”
— Mosheh Oinounou (@Mosheh) July 3, 2013
Secretary Kerry was aboard his yacht, the “Isabel” this afternoon pic.twitter.com/R6v1UDFNGu
— Mosheh Oinounou (@Mosheh) July 3, 2013
