Megyn Kelly interviewed State Department spokesperson Jen Psaki on "The Kelly Files" Thursday to respond to allegations by former Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta that President Obama never wanted a status of forces agreement with Iraq. Psaki refused to get off the administration's talking point that Iraqi President Nouri al-Maliki refused to grant legal protection to U.S. troops. Kelly refused to let her off the hook and kept hitting Psaki with Panetta's allegations, trying to get an answer.

According to a new book by Panetta, former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA, the Obama administration was "so eager to rid itself of Iraq" that it made no real effort to secure a deal that might have prevented the country's collapse and the rise of ISIS.

My fear, as I voiced to the President and others, was that if the country split apart or slid back into the violence that we’d seen in the years immediately following the U.S. invasion, it could become a new haven for terrorists to plot attacks against the U.S. Iraq’s stability was not only in Iraq’s interest but also in ours. I privately and publicly advocated for a residual force that could provide training and security for Iraq’s military.

Under Secretary of Defense Michèle Flournoy did her best to press that position, which reflected not just my views but also those of the military commanders in the region and the Joint Chiefs. But the President’s team at the White House pushed back, and the differences occasionally became heated. Flournoy argued our case, and those on our side viewed the White House as so eager to rid itself of Iraq that it was willing to withdraw rather than lock in arrangements that would preserve our influence and interests.

Kelly pressed Psaki to respond to Panetta's charges, but the State Department's spokeswoman ignored them as if they didn't exist:

Psaki: Well, Megyn, let me first say that Secretary Panetta is someone who has had such a distinguished and well-respected career in public service and a range of positions, as you know. But what happened in 2011 was that there were two major factors; one was Iraq is a sovereign country. They decide -- with cooperation with the United States, of course -- what kind of presence there would or wouldn't be. The second is we didn't have the troop protections that we needed. There were legal challenges there. There was a desire to have that go through the parliament. And that just wasn't going to be politically possible.

Kelly: But the reason it wasn't politically possible -- and this is what Mr. Panetta is saying and what Secretary Gates said and what many have said -- the reason it wasn't possible is because the number of troops being offered by the administration, by President Obama, was so paltry and so under what the Pentagon was recommending, what the State Department was recommending, that it was a joke for Maliki. He couldn't take the political risk of going back and say give them immunity, they're going to give us 5,000 troops, when our Pentagon was saying, Mr. President, you need to give them at least 24,000, the least option we have available to us is 10,000 but that is not wise. And the President ultimately said we'll do five and Maliki said no deal. How do you blame that on Maliki?

Psaki: Well, look, one, I think a number of people including Secretary Panetta have spoken to that exact question over the course of the last couple of years.

Kelly: He has. And it's not favorable to the President what he's saying.

Psaki: Well, we're not placing blame on anyone. The facts are the facts here.

Kelly: That’s what we're trying to get to. It’s not about blame, it's about accountability because the President is very focused on what we do right now about the problem in the Middle East, and that's good. But the question also has to be answered how did we get here. And you know what people say. They think we got here because the president pulled all of those troops out of Iraq over the recommendations of generals, over the recommendations of his Pentagon, his Defense Secretary, over the recommendations of Bob -- of Gates. And instead of doing what everyone was telling him to do, he pulled us out of there because politically he wanted out of the Middle East.

Psaki: Megyn, the facts just don't align with that. The fact is none of those individuals you named would have left our troops there without the protections they needed.

Kelly: If he offered more troops, they would have gotten the protection. That’s their allegation.

Psaki: We could not force Iraq, a sovereign government, to accept a presence there.

It went on that way for another seven minutes (see video above).