Former Secretary of State John Kerry got defensive during a recent interview at the Vatican after he was asked to explain the annexation of Crimea by Russia during his tenure as part of the Obama Administration, with Kerry attempting to wash his hands of any involvement in the annexation.
For context, MSNBC’s Chris Jansing caught John Kerry at the Vatican on April 25, 2025, where Kerry was joining countless other prominent political figures for the funeral of Pope Francis, who passed away on April 21. During an impromptu interview, Jansing asked Kerry to comment on the current state of foreign policy under President Donald Trump, and Kerry took an overtly defensive stance, making cryptic comments throughout the interview.
At the beginning of the interview, Jansing began asking Kerry a question and was promptly interrupted. “You were Secretary of State when Russia annexed Crimea,” Jansing began, “And I want to ask you…” Kerry cut the reporter off, saying, “But when they stated they were, we did not allow them to annex it. And we stood up against it.”
Continuing, Jansing attempted to go along with Kerry, saying, “Right. They said it was theirs.” Kerry responded, “Yeah, they said it, but under international law, that does not make it theirs.” Jansing replied by asking Kerry to weigh in on President Trump’s pursuit of a peace agreement between Russia and Ukraine that would leave Russia in control of Crimea, to which Kerry replied, “Well, who knows?”
Moving on, Kerry expressed distaste toward President Trump’s proposed structure for a peace agreement, reportedly saying, “I personally don’t agree with putting that out there on the table.” In response, Jansing said, “It’s a dramatic change in U.S. policy.” Getting more emotional, Kerry pressed on, saying, “Huge. I just said I don’t necessarily agree with putting that out there on the table.”
Getting more defensive and tense, Kerry made several confusing and apparently contradictory statements about President Trump’s foreign policy practices, saying, “Who knows what the parties will accept. Clearly, it has to be perceived by each party as being fair to them and as a balanced outcome somehow. And I think that to announce where you’re coming down as a mediator ahead of time puts everybody in a very difficult position.”
In addition, Kerry seemed to sympathize with President Trump in his next statement, telling Jansing, “I applaud the president for pursuing this. I know he’s dogged about it. He wants to have peace. I believe that, and I wish him well in their efforts to try to get there. It’s a tough task, but it’s doable. And I think it’s really important for the administration to continue to work at it.”
"*" indicates required fields
In the same interview, Kerry also made several comments about Pope Francis’s stance on climate change, praising the late Pope and saying “he would roll his eyes a little bit about the human challenge of getting people to do things, but he had faith in that.” Kerry then added that the Pope had a “steady, calm, quiet, but totally dedicated mission of dealing with this.”
Watch the interview with Kerry:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video