Mark Kornblau, spokesman for the U.S. Mission to the United Nations, called me in response to this post by Richard Grenell about Susan Rice and the vote to put Iran onto the Commission on the Status of Women committee. Kornblau says of the post, “Its foundation is 100 percent inaccurate.” Susan Rice, he says, was actually in a public meeting of the U.N. Security Council during the same time period. She proceeded to a press conference after the meeting.
As for the Commission meeting, Kornblau points out that the U.S. was represented by Ambassador Rick Barton. The U.S. was, he said, represented at a “pretty high level, higher than usual.” While careful not to excuse how the vote turned out, Kornblau did point out that “Iran has been on this commission for the last 20 years.” The problem, in other words, didn’t start during the Obama administration.