Raised Eyebrows in Washington Or, When Marie Met Matt

Why are her eyebrows upraised?

She is Marie Harf, State Department Deputy Spokesperson at the Daily Press Briefing in Washington, DC on August 26, 2013.

Read it all here.

Okay, a hint:

...QUESTION: -- you’re beating around the bush, but please don’t try and say that you’re making it clear when you’re making it unclear. You’re --

MS. HARF: I don’t understand what’s not clear about saying I’m not going to confirm every meeting. You can ask --

QUESTION: But you just said that no meetings have been canceled --

MS. HARF: Right.

QUESTION: -- but you can say that it took place.

MS. HARF: Yes.

QUESTION: So that means – what does that mean?

MS. HARF: It means that I’m not going to confirm when meetings took place. There were rumors --

QUESTION: Whatever.

...QUESTION: It means nothing.

MS. HARF: Look, when some – when there are press reports out there that a meeting’s been canceled, I’m going to say, generally speaking, no meetings have been canceled. I’m not going to stand here --

QUESTION: So if it wasn’t canceled, then it took place?

MS. HARF: I’m not going to stand here and tell you a meeting took place and when and where and who was involved. And that’s going to be the case for the rest of this nine months, people, so get ready for it, and you can keep asking the questions and you’re going to keep getting the same response.

QUESTION: So we should get accustomed to more confusing non-denials and denials?

MS. HARF: You should get accustomed to us not announcing when meetings are taking place necessarily in the ongoing Israeli-Palestinian peace process. Yes.

QUESTION: But if you’re going to clear up misconceptions, then just clear it up. Don’t --

MS. HARF: Okay.

QUESTION: -- say you’re going to clear it up and then not clear it up.

MS. HARF: I’ll take your advice onboard going forward.

QUESTION: In retrospect, was it a mistake to say that there would be a second meeting in Jericho when you announced the first one?

MS. HARF: No, not at all.

QUESTION: Oh? So – but then you can’t say if it actually happened or not? I might be able to be – I would be more sympathetic to your position or your case here if you hadn’t ever announced that the meeting in Jericho was going to happen, but you did. Okay?

MS. HARF: Right. And I don’t have anything --

QUESTION: So from going --

MS. HARF: -- to announce on it.

QUESTION: From now, going forward, if you don’t want to be caught in this verbal trapeze act that you’re involved in, don’t announce that there’s going to be a meeting in the first place and then say you can’t say that it – whether it happened or not.

MS. HARF: Again, we will announce – at times announce meetings when we feel it’s important to do so. And when we don’t, we will not announce every meeting...

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