The pathetic ballet of Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) and U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday, exemplifies the narrow-minded and bigoted mentality making Washington, D.C., incapable of functioning. The affair made the news headlines with Blinken saying that the world is better off with the May 19 helicopter crash that caused the death of Iran’s President Ebrahim Raisi.
When asked yesterday about such a report, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov, by way of contrast, refused to join the ugly ballet. He said that he would first need to see the original of Blinken’s words, since he found the report implausible. He doubted that “a high-ranking official of a nation of the U.S.’s stature could make, diplomatically speaking, such an awkward statement.”
Unfortunately, the original indicates that Blinken’s problem is real, and more, is symptomatic of a larger problem in Washington. First, the State Department had issued to Iran a rather cold statement on May 20 of “official condolences,” making sure to add that Washington supports “the Iranian people and their struggle for human rights and fundamental freedoms.” The next day, Sen. John Barrasso (R-WY) chastised Blinken, saying that it was “shocking” that the administration would mourn a “sworn enemy of the free world.” Blinken was ready with his defense: “We expressed official condolences as we’ve done when countries—adversaries, enemies or not—have lost leaders. It changes nothing about the fact that Mr. Raisi was engaged in reprehensible conduct, including repressing his own people for many years.”
