Kirby on USS Carl Vinson Misstatement: ‘I Don’t Fault the W.H. on This’

EXCERPT:

KIRBY: "I think there was a series of communications issues on the PR side in terms of the press release that originally announced her departure from Singapore and the fact that it didn't necessarily account for this exercise with the Australians. And I also think that there was a lack of communication on the operational reporting side, not just the communications side but real up the chain of command. So I think it’s easy to understand why people had this impression that they were going right away. But I actually don’t fault the White House on this. I don’t think there was any malfeasance here or intent to mislead. The truth is, the carrier is and was, when she left Singapore, intended to go to those waters. It's just that she was making a diversion for this exercise and it wasn’t really clear in the public sphere that there was going to be a delay in terms of her moving up that way."