BUCK: We actually have this sound bite here of John Kerry basically saying, “Well, you can’t blame Joe Biden. He doesn’t know anything.”

KERRY: President Biden asked me about it, and I told him, and expressed, uhh…

FRENCHMAN: You told Joe Biden that it was not the right…?

KERRY: He asked me! He said, “What’s the situation?” and I explained exactly, uhh… He was… He had not been aware of that. He liverly — literally had not been aware of what had transpired, and I don’t want to go into the details of it. But suffice it to say that, uhhh, that the president, uh, uhhh… my president — is very committed to, uh — to, uhh, strengthening the relationship and making sure that this is a small event of the past and moving on to the much more important future.

BUCK: Clay, I think that the president should know about a nuclear deal involving the U.S., the U.K., and Australia. I think that should be kind of higher on the list than say the latest Hunter Biden art sale.

CLAY: Well, what’s craziest, Buck, that actually makes total sense to me, though. The incompetence of John Kerry in terms of describing Joe Biden, I think most people out there listening are like, “Yeah, I can totally buy that he is so not aware of what’s going on that it’s possible a deal this big could be announced and that he could have totally bungled this process.

Not by making a bad decision, but by being so unaware of what’s going on that whoever is running the White House is making that decision.” That’s a little bit scary, right? Because France, whatever you think about our relationship with France, it was considered so far outside the diplomatic mainstream that they pulled their ambassador from the country which almost never happens.

BUCK: That’s a big deal in diplomatic circles.

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: It’s kind of thing that you would think would be averted by the adults in the room of the Biden administration foreign policy team. But we all know that’s kind of like saying that Joe Biden’s gonna unite the country. It’s become an unfunny joke at this point.

CLAY: Or solve covid.

BUCK: Or solve covid, even less true situation.