The White House knew it couldn’t bluster its way out of the awkward fact that it failed to send a senior U.S. official to Sunday’s historic rally in Paris against terrorism, so it chose a sensible — and surprising — alternative: It admitted a mistake.
“It’s fair to say that we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, admitted Monday.
The president didn’t have to be there, but the vice president or secretary of state or even the attorney general, who actually was in France for a meeting, should have attended in addition to the U.S. ambassador. The immense rally was, as The New York Times noted, “the most striking show of solidarity in the West against Islamic extremism since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.” And the U.S., of course, has led the world in confronting this form of extremism during the entire period.
Republicans are depicting the administration’s failure as a major blunder, but it wasn’t that, either. The French appreciate that the U.S. supports their rejection of terrorism. But having a prominent U.S. official there would have underlined the point.
To send a letter to the editor about this article, submit or check out our for how to submit by e-mail or mail.
