The State Department said Monday that foreign leaders are worried about more than one of the candidates running for president this year, and not just Donald Trump.
“I think there is a wide swath of views that have been expressed on the campaign trail from more than one candidate that has caused concern among many foreign leaders,” spokesman John Kirby told reporters.
Kirby didn’t name names, but his comments came a day after Secretary of State John Kerry said the 2016 race is an “embarrassment” for the United States, which was widely seen as a comment on Trump’s campaign. Kerry said “every leader I meet” is shocked about the race, and said the rhetoric being used is an “embarrassment to our country.”
Kirby said State would not be handing out a list of foreign leaders who spoke on this issue to Kerry, but said nearly every leader is worried.
“I’m not going to give you a list, but I can tell you as he did, virtually every foreign leader that the secretary meets with expresses concerns about the campaign rhetoric here in the United States, and expresses a fair bit of angst about where things are going,” Kirby said.
When asked if Kerry was talking about comments from Ted Cruz as well, Kirby said he was talking about a “wide swath of views that have been expressed on the campaign trail from more than one candidate.”
When asked if Kerry was only talking about Republican candidates, Kirby said, “I think I’m just going to leave it the way I said … wide swath of candidates.”
