Former Secretary of State John Kerry stopped by “The Late Show with Stephen Colbert” Tuesday night, where he told the CBS show’s host that President Trump has failed his “greatest duty” with the war in Iran.
“I think what he’s doing now is challenging the validity of his FIFA World Peace Prize,” Kerry jokingly remarked at one point in the interview, prompting Colbert to sarcastically reply, “That is sacred, sir!” Kerry followed it up later with a joke about FBI director Kash Patel that shocked both Colbert and his “Late Show” studio audience.
“It’s a good thing for America if neither Iran nor Kash Patel are getting bombed,” Kerry joked, provoking laughter and applause from the nearby crowd. His jest was in reference to a recent story published by The Atlantic about Patel, which not only reports that the FBI boss is concerned about his job security within the Trump administration, but also that he has become known behind closed doors for excessive bouts of drinking. Patel has denied all the claims in the article and filed a $250 million lawsuit Monday against The Atlantic over the story.
“I really think you have to get on a different track,” Kerry added of the current conflict in Iran. “This war did not have to be fought, and it is dangerous. There are greater dangers now than there were previously.” You can watch the “Late Show” segment yourself below.
Kerry went on to argue that Trump has not only failed to make the situation in the Middle East better, but that he has also failed the American servicemen and women serving our country.
“The greatest duty of a president of the United States is to be able to look into the eyes of parents of young people you’re going to send off to fight in your war and make sure that you have made it clear to them there’s a purpose, there’s a clarity, you know exactly what the goals are and you know what you’re asking people to sacrifice for,” Kerry explained. “That did not happen here. So that is a failed test of the presidency.”
Colbert then asked Kerry, who previously negotiated a nuclear deal with Iran during the Obama administration, what advice he would give members of the current Trump regime about their foreign policies.
“I’ve never been asked, but my advice to the administration is, you know, take time to set up your agenda,” he offered. “Take time to be reasonable in ways that will not encourage them to say, ‘Oh, you just took a ship over, and we, on the other hand, said we’re going to open the Strait of Hormuz,’ which, by the way, had never been shut in any conflict that we’ve had or difference we’ve had with Iran.”
“Donald Trump, by ripping up the [cease-fire] agreement and pulling out, has actually put us in a worse place than we were previously because the one thing we feared by pulling it out is: No agreement? War is probably almost inevitable,” Kerry concluded. “They have made it inevitable by giving Iran no freedom to move in a different direction.”
