Matt Lee is the diplomatic correspondent for the Associated Press. He is given to pursuing a skeptical line of questions like few reporters with major media organizations in Washington. In March 2015 the Washington Free Beacon compiled a brief highlight reel featuring Lee and the psychedelic Jen Psaki. Psaki has failed upward since her days as a flack serving John Kerry in the Obama administration.
This week Lee chewed on the news of the day with State Department spokesman Ned Price at the February 3 briefing. C-SPAN has posted the 11-minute clip below on YouTube. The subject is Russia and Ukraine, with respect to which the Biden administration has exposed the Russian “fake pretext” for invasion. Lee impolitely persists in asking where the beef is. Not to say he isn’t speaking the truth, we can nevertheless observe that Price persists in the fallacy of ipse dixit, although Price prefers the Latin phrase ipso facto.
C-SPAN has also posted the shorter clip below on Twitter. I think the clip above is worth your time. My standards may be low, but I find the entertainment value to be high. However, this clip cuts to the chase.
WATCH: Heated exchange between @APDiploWriter Matt Lee and @StateDeptSpox Ned Price on declassified information. pic.twitter.com/8TFJdSW4M6
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 3, 2022
So far as I can tell, Lee himself hasn’t reported on the briefing for AP. NRO’s Caroline Downey has a good summary in “Veteran Reporter Tears Into State Department Spox over Russian False-Flag Allegation: ‘You Have No Evidence.'” Price added the footnote below via Twitter following the briefing.
The renowned @APDiploWriter and I have had our fair share of sparring sessions, and I have the scars to prove it. Clearly, he’s no one’s dupe, and I’d never want to suggest otherwise. Nothing but respect for him, which I underscored in a call to him after the briefing.
— Ned Price (@StateDeptSpox) February 3, 2022
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