NSC maintains initial reporting on Chinese spy base in Cuba was inaccurate

Kirby denounced the sources behind the initial report.

“We were as forthcoming as we should have been at the time the first stories appeared,” Kirby said on Monday. “Sadly, not everybody seems to take it as seriously as we do. … Clearly, there’s a source or sources out there that think it’s somehow beneficial to put this kind of information into the public stream. And it’s absolutely not.”

Kirby also rejected the idea that the White House or the Pentagon had walked back comments calling the early reports inaccurate.

“The fact that we came out a couple of days later and provided some clarifying information does not mean, and should not be taken as I’ve seen in some of the press reporting, as some kind of walk-back,” he said.