acarvin

Andy Carvin · @acarvin

26th Nov 2012 from Twitlonger

Here's the press conference Q&A with State Dept rep Victoria Nuland over @AndrewWK's canceled Bahrain trip:

Q: And then secondly -- and this is a really kind of bizarre --
there's an entertainer who goes by the name of Andrew W.K. who says
that he has been named or appointed by the State Department to be a
cultural ambassador to appear at some event in Bahrain. Do you know
anything about this?

MS. NULAND: And here I thought we were going to get through this
whole briefing without that point coming up.

Q: Oh, you do -- you do. Is it -- is it true? You have
something?

MS. NULAND: I do have a little something on this. So we had a
Bahraini entity that approached the embassy about co-sponsoring a
visit by this guy, who I take it is pretty popular there in Bahrain.
That was initially approved, and then when more senior management at
the embassy took a look at this, the conclusion was that this was not
an appropriate use of U.S. government funds.

Q: Is that -- is that -- did -- would they -- the government
would have paid for his trip over there had it -- (inaudible) --

MS. NULAND: I don't know what the details of our sponsorship
were -- (inaudible) --

Q: Can you explain why it was -- was it -- I mean, his --
(chuckles) -- that the -- was it -- was the -- it was decided that it
was inappropriate to send someone over there to Bahrain to represent
the United States whose hits include, you know, "Party 'Til You Puke"
and things like that? (Laughter.) Is that -- is that why it was --
is that why it was decided it was inappropriate?

MS. NULAND: Thank you for sharing that. I think --

Q: No, is that -- is that why?

MS. NULAND: I think the conclusion was when they looked at the
body of his work that we didn't need to be part of this invitation.
I'll leave --

Q: (Inaudible) -- and just hold on -- just to make clear, it was
-- the invitation was actually never extended to him?

MS. NULAND: Frankly, I don't have the details. There may have
been some preliminary conversations with him. But he is not going to
be going to Bahrain on the U.S. government's dime.

Q: All right.

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