It's Thursday, October 26th, and pigs have flown. That was the story after John Kirby managed to actually come out on top of an exchange with a reporter. 

After being criticized for questioning the casualty numbers coming out of Gaza, Kirby let loose, not only doubling down but doing so in a way that would almost make one forget he works for the Biden administration. 

Consider this one heck of a stopped-clock moment. The credit goes to Curtis Houck for transcribing the exchange.

OMG I can't believe I'm saying this, but....go John Kirby?

TV Globo’s @RKrahenbuhl: “So, besides saying that he doesn't have confidence in these numbers, the President went further to say that innocents will die and that this is the price of the war. You also said that.”

Kirby:… pic.twitter.com/PhB5SxEHTe

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 26, 2023

Krähenbühl: So, besides saying that he doesn't have confidence in these numbers, the President went further to say that innocents will die and that this is the price of the war. You also said that.

Kirby: I have indeed.

Krähenbühl: Don't you think this is insensitive? There’s being very harsh criticism in about it. For example, the Council of American-Islamic Relations said it was deeply disturbed and call on the President to apologize. Would the President apologize?”

Kirby: No.

Krähenbühl: And does he regret saying something like that?

Kirby: What’s harsh — what’s harsh is the way Hamas is using people as human shields. What’s harsh is taking a couple of hundred hostages and leaving families and anxious, waiting and worrying to figure out where their loved ones are. What's harsh, is dropping in on a music festival and slaughtering a bunch of young people just trying to enjoy an afternoon. I could go on and on. That's what's harsh. That is what's harsh and being honest about the fact that there have been civilian casualties and that there likely will be more is being honest, because that's what war is. It's brutal. It's ugly. It's messy. I've said that before. President also said that yesterday. Doesn't mean we have to like it. And it doesn't mean that we're dismissing anyone of those casualties each and every one is a tragedy in its own right...It would be helpful if Hamas would let [Gazans] leave....We know that there are thousands waiting to leave Gaza writ large and Hamas is preventing them from doing it. That is what is harsh.

The Hamas-led "Ministry of Health" in Gaza has a long record of inflating death tolls, including faking pictures and videos, for propaganda reasons. It is simply not a credible source in any way whatsoever. 

Most recently, they claimed 500 were killed in an Israeli airstrike on a hospital. Putting aside the evidence that eventually showed it was almost certainly a Palestinian Islamic Jihad rocket that misfired, a European intelligence official put the true total at between 10 and 50. That was consistent with the facts on the ground given the hospital itself was undamaged (aside from a few broken windows), and it was confirmed that several dozen people were camping out next to the parking lot where the fire occurred.

Despite that, the mainstream press has continually relied on causality statistics from Hamas, in order to present the narrative that Israel is committing atrocities by retaliating against the terrorist group. You can hear the indignation in the voice of the reporter as she tries to scold Kirby for daring to not believe that a terrorist group has the most efficient recovery operation in human history.

Again, as I've stressed, that's not to say that people aren't dying. Of course, people are being killed by the airstrikes, some of them civilians, because Hamas refuses to let them evacuate. Still, the idea that 7,000 people have died, the latest total put out by the "Ministry of Health," is backed by no evidence whatsoever. 

There is not a government on earth, even in peacetime with zero threats to ongoing operations, that could clear rubble and accurately count bodies within hours of an attack; yet, Hamas claims they have done that with every single strike that has occurred in just a few weeks. It's an impossibility. 

So, while I have no idea what the actual death toll is in Gaza, I do know that I have zero reason to believe what Hamas is saying. Good on Kirby for not bending to the pressure and speaking the truth. It was a rare moment of clarity from an administration that has routinely obfuscated in tough moments. 

With that said, I fully expect Karine Jean-Pierre or Biden himself to undercut Kirby. For at least one day, though, the administration managed to actually do something right.