Richard Stengel worked in the Obama administration as the Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. He was clearly a fan of Obama’s Iran Deal.
Stengel recently appeared on MSNBC and was talking about the conflict in Iran and tried to suggest that Iran makes a better ally for the U.S. than Israel.
When the host pointed out that people in Iran often chant ‘death to America’ Stengel twisted himself into knots trying to downplay this fact. It’s really something to behold.
The Washington Free Beacon reported:
MSNBC political analyst and former Obama administration official Rick Stengel questioned why the United States is aligned with Israel rather than Iran, which he called “the most Western nation” in the Middle East. Though Iranians chant “death to America,” Stengel said, they also “love American movies.”
“Why is it a foundation issue for Trump that Iran doesn’t have a nuclear weapon?” Stengel, who served as an undersecretary of state for public diplomacy and public affairs under former president Barack Obama, asked during a Thursday appearance on MSNBC. “Why are we allied with Israel?”
When pressed on Iranians’ “death to America” chants, Stengel recalled a 2014 trip to the country. “I was sitting … at a rally,” he said. “These young guys were chanting ‘death to America.’ … They finished the chants. And two young men came over and said, ‘Are you American?’ I said yes, [and they said,] ‘We want to welcome you to our country. We love American culture. We love American movies.’”
“Iran is the most Western nation in the whole Middle East,” Stengel went on. “We have much more in common with them than a lot of countries that we do have alliances with.”
Watch the video below:
NEW: Obama’s Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Richard Stengel says the United States has a lot in common with Iran.
Stengel said that Iranians do, in fact, chant “Death to America,” but are respectful about it.
“Iran is the most Western nation… pic.twitter.com/v3VWkONi4p
— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) June 19, 2025
Democrats have a twisted view of the world. How else could this guy try so hard to justify such a thing?
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