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Kerry: 'I Won't Confirm Gaps, There Obviously Are Gaps'

November 24, 2014

Secretary of State John Kerry instantly contradicted himself Monday during a press conference meant to spin the failed negotiations over Iran's nuclear program as a "success."

New York Times journalist Michael Gordon asked Kerry about the 'gaps'--which he and President Obama acknowledged were "significant"--in agreement between Iran and the P5+1 countries attempting to negotiate a deal. Kerry refused to acknowledge that there were still gaps before admitting that there were "obviously" gaps less than 10 seconds later.

"Let me just emphasize, as I said in the beginning, I'm not going to talk about the details. I'm not going to confirm whether or not there's a gap or not a gap or where the gaps are," Kerry said. "There obviously are gaps."

Kerry made clear that he would not divulge any details of the negotiations, lest they be scrutinized by public opinion.

"There's obviously some distance to travel, but if we start getting into where they are or where they aren't, then one side or the other is going to begin to get asked, 'well, what did you give for that?' or 'what did you get for that?' or 'where are we?'" Kerry said. "And if that becomes the public debate, this is going to end very quickly. So we're not going to discuss the details, as I said to you, we're just not going to go there."