White House Spokesman Josh Earnest then went on to throw the State Department under the bus for admitting the $400 million given to Iran was used as “leverage” in return for American hostages.

REPORTER: “He has offered a fundamentally different interpretation of this transaction. The United States does not pay the ransom. You talked about the benefits but you did not talk about the detriments.”

EARNEST: “It is foolish in thinking so because the United States does not pay ransom. It has been the policy of this administration, that was the policy of previous administrations. There are those because of the value that we place on human life. It was the same conclusion really — reached by democratic and others. That is why the United States won’t pay ransom, even for Americans unjustly detained overseas. We do actually have a quite strong record of securing the release of unjust detained. I just Iran but other places around the world. It’s a process the administration has overhauled to make it more effective. The safe return of U.S. citizens is something the president has made a priority and we made significant progress.”