White House spokesman Josh Earnest downplayed a question from NBC’s Peter Alexander on Monday over a comment that vice presidential hopeful Tim Kaine made on U.S. strategy to counter foreign threats.
Kaine had said that the U.S. has "no strategy" on broader foreign policy. Earnest said that he was not familiar with those comments.
"What I will say is that the president and his national security team are always working through contingency plans, and there is a focus on making sure that the American people and our interests are protected around the globe," Earnest said.
CNN’s Jake Tapper reminded Kaine last month of a time last year when he called President Obama’s strategy in Syria "a joke."
"In Syria, the strategy’s a joke," Kaine said last October on a radio show. "You know, we do these one-off actions like try to train 30 people and put them back into a roiling civil war involving millions. No surprise, they get swallowed up in the civil war, killed or captured or defect immediately."