ABC News' Jon Karl rattled off an extensive list of the White House's foreign policy dilemmas during a press briefing with Press Secretary Josh Earnest, and asked, "Do you think the president's foreign policy bears any responsibility for any of this or there's anything that he can do about any of this?"
Karl began by quoting Attorney General Eric Holder, who told ABC's This Week the flow of Westerners into Syria is "more frightening than anything I think I’ve seen as attorney general."
Karl then cited foreign policy experts who told the Wall Street Journal, "The breadth of global instability now unfolding hasn't been seen since the late 1970s."
Earnest attempted to interrupt by calling the Wall Street Journal "not exactly an impartial source", but Karl continued, "These were not just partisan foreign policy experts."
Karl proceeded to list off deteriorating security situations around the world: "I think -- you know, you see a wide range of people looking at a -- you know, basically an all-out war, what's looking like an all-out war in Israel, in the Palestinian territories. You see the situation with a terrorist group taking over vast territory in Iraq and in Syria. You see Russian aggression in Ukraine. You see just --concerns about Chinese aggression in the South China Sea. It doesn't seem like a time to be touting tranquility on the international scene."
Asked whether the president bears responsibility for these situations, and what he can do about it, Earnest dodged the questions and instead said that, in each situation, the president will consider "at the core the consequences it has for American national security."
Earnest also boasted that "When it came to eliminating Bashar al-Assad's declared chemical weapons stockpile, we made substantial progress in advancing American interests."