Kicker: Debugging the State Department

NICK EICHER, HOST: The State Department’s been bugged. And in a moment made for social media the discovery came during a press briefing.

You can hear spokesman Matthew Miller reading out the government line on the fighting in and around Israel, and then …

MATTHEW MILLER: Matt, I hate to interrupt, there’s a big cockroach on the wall, over your head there, so maybe need, uh …

He’s talking to Matt Lee of the Associated Press, who I’d say was undaunted and pretty much all business, but the State Department spokesman … he just couldn’t let it go.

MILLER: It’s a rather large one! Do I have to get rid of it now? No, no, let me go ahead and finish. Um, ah. We’ve seen the number— we’ve seen a dramatic increase in attacks across the — I should’ve have said anything, because now the room, now the room’s gonna have a hard time focusing …

About a minute later, order was restored. You could hear a faint slapping sound, followed by applause, and Miller proclaiming, problem solved.

I’m not sure there’ve been this many unwanted intruders at the State Department since Alger Hiss.

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Look it up, kids.

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