Conservative voices raged over a statement by White House press secretary Josh Earnest on Thursday when he was asked what “destroy” literally means in terms of destroying the Islamic State group.
“What does victory look like here?” asked Yahoo! News correspondent Olivier Knox. “I mean, you’ve talked about destroying ISIL… what does that mean?”
“I didn’t bring my Webster’s dictionary with me up here,” Mr. Earnest replied, receiving an “Oh, come on.”
“Well, ya know,” he said smiling. “I think that’s a pretty illustrative phrase to describe the situation that we envision. We’ve talked about the threat that ISIL poses in the context of foreign fighters.”
Twitter users made sure to express their lack of amusement with Mr. Earnest’s quip. CBS 6 producer Chris Peralta sarcastically called him a “funny guy.”
“Seems the White House is making light of a pretty important question,” wrote Yahoo! News reporter Chris Moody.
“Cute. The republic is doomed,” wrote HotAir’s Noah Rothman.
• Jessica Chasmar can be reached at jchasmar@washingtontimes.com.
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