The State Department said Monday that Secretary John Kerry didn’t skip a NATO summit in Poland last weekend to go see the show “Hamilton” in New York, and said Kerry made sure his work was done before taking a shot at seeing the monster Broadway hit.
Kerry got grief from the New York Post and many on Twitter who said Kerry blew off the critical NATO meeting instead of waiting for it to end. But spokesman John Kirby said his department is not satisfied with those reports.
“It’s important to note that he had a very full schedule, very comprehensive agenda in Warsaw, actually the entire week, but certainly at Warsaw,” Kirby said. “And he completed all his commitments at the Warsaw summit before departing, each and every one of them.”
He said the part Kerry skipped wasn’t for foreign ministers anyway.
“So he worked very hard in Warsaw, he completed all the meetings and discussions that he had intended to complete,” Kirby said. “But yes, he did depart before the president, and he departed because he had committed to attend the wedding of the son of a very dear, close personal friend of his back in New England.
“That is the reason why he left Warsaw a little early, but again, I would stress that even if he had stayed, he would have already completed his entire agenda,” Kirby added. “So I think press reporting and speculation out there that he left Warsaw to attend a play is just patently false.
“He did go to the musical on Saturday night, that is a fact. He did, as a private endeavor, something that he wanted to do with his daughter, so he did attend,” he concluded. “But that had nothing to do with his Warsaw agenda whatsoever, and it had no effect whatsoever on the work that he was able to get done in Warsaw.”
