State Department spokesman John Kirby on Wednesday pushed back on criticism President Barack Obama is more focused on Russian hacking than on China's aggressive tactics around the world.
In an interview on Fox News' "Your World With Neil Cavuto," Kirby also denied the timing of Secretary of State John Kerry's policy speech critical of Israel created a bigger problem for President-elect Donal Trump.
"Just weeks to go, you just dump it in his lap?" Cavuto asked Kirby.
"This wasn't about dumping anything," Kirby shot back. "It's about doing what we felt is the right thing to try to see a viable two-state solution move forward. We continue to believe, and Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu believes it."
Kirby also insisted Obama is "not turning a blind eye to China."
"The president said there's no more consequential bilateral relationship in the world" than that between the United States and China, Kirby said.
"To say that we haven't been watching and concerned, and haven't been expressing it, or frankly, focusing on the Asia Pacific region, just flies in the face of the facts," Kirby argued.
Kirby insisted "we have legitimate concerns about Russia's cyber activities and intrusions in the election and the intelligence committee has spoken to that in terms of the concerns there."
But, he added: "I don't think that it would be a fair criticism to say we focused on Russia and not with the concerns and challenges with China."
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