White House apologizes for not sending top officials to Paris unity march | World news | The GuardianWhite House apologizes for not sending top officials to Paris unity march | World news | The Guardian










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Charlie Hebdo attack



White House apologizes for not sending top officials to Paris unity march










White House strikes apologetic tone: ‘This kind of symbolism is important’
Cites ‘more onerous’ security precautions for US president as cause for absence
Kerry to visit Paris amid scramble to counter Charlie Hebdo march criticism

























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The White House spokesman, Josh Earnest, said the government should have sent a more senior official 



Dan Roberts in Washington






@RobertsDan





Monday 12 January 2015 15.52 EST







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The White House has issued a rare statement of regret over its decision not to send a more senior US representative to Sunday’s anti-terrorism march in Paris, as Barack Obama’s perceived lack of public solidarity with European allies helped create a political storm in Washington.
At its first press briefing since last week’s attack, the White House struck a more apologetic tone as growing criticism of its decision not to attend threatened to overshadow its official response to the attack.
“I think it’s fair to say that we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters. “We here at the White House should have made a different decision,” he added, though he insisted the president was not consulted personally on the decision.
Seventeen people died in Paris last week when Islamist terrorists attacked the office of the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people, and a kosher supermarket, killing four; a police officer was also shot dead by the man who attacked the supermarket.

 Related: Charlie Hebdo attackers: born, raised and radicalised in Paris 

The US secretary of state, John Kerry, earlier on Monday had dismissed concerns about the conspicuous absence of US politicians among other world leaders at a march in honour of the victims as “quibbling”, though hurriedly announced his own plan to visit Paris later this week.
Typically, the Obama administration takes a dim view of the importance of “optics” in such circumstances, but the incident threatens to rekindle criticism among political opponents that Obama’s foreign policy has become too isolationist.
“This kind of symbolism is important ... Those kinds of expressions of solidarity are meaningful,” said Earnest. “We want to send a clear message even in a symbolic context like this that the American people stand shoulder to shoulder with France,” he added.
The only mitigation offered by the unusually contrite White House communications team was to point out that the extra security precautions necessary to accommodate the president or vice-president could have disrupted the march.
“There is no doubt that had the president attended the march, the security precautions would have had an impact on those who attended the march,” said Earnest.
“The march came together at 36 hours’ notice outdoors,” he added. “The security precautions for the president of the United States are sometimes more onerous than other leaders.”
But the White House acknowledged that such security concerns could nonetheless have been overcome and offered no explanation for why the attorney general, Eric Holder, who was in Paris for meetings that day, did not attend instead of Obama or Biden.
Criticism of the decision came particularly from Republicans in Congress but was expressed most vividly on the front page of Monday’s New York Daily News and also shared by some French commentators.


— Philip Crowther (@PhilipinDC)
January 12, 2015
They may have a point: “@mlcalderone: Daily News blasts Obama admin for not having a top official at Paris march: pic.twitter.com/a4k8vsoOPB”



US officials said an apology would be offered if necessary to the French ambassador when he visited the White House later on Monday, but insisted comments to date show that France understood the depth of American support and solidarity.
Earlier, Kerry announced he would make the short trip “to make it crystal-clear how passionately we feel about the events that have taken place there”.
“As soon as I heard about the plans for the march that took place yesterday, I asked my team to figure out what the earliest is that I could travel to Paris in order to show, once again, to reaffirm the connection between the United States and our oldest ally,” he told reporters during a pre-scheduled visit to Gujarat, India.
“And so, I will be traveling there on Thursday, and be there Friday, part of Friday. And I want to emphasise that the relationship with France is not about one day or one particular moment. It’s an ongoing, long-time relationship that is deeply, deeply based in the shared values, and particularly the commitment that we share in freedom of expression.”
But Kerry rejected accusations that he and Obama had erred in not joining fellow world leaders at the event.
“I really think this is sort of quibbling a little bit, in the sense that our assistant secretary of state, Victoria Nuland, was there and marched,” said Kerry when asked if it was a mistake not to send a higher-level delegation.
“Our ambassador was there and marched. Many people from the embassy were there and marched. And I believe that, as everybody knows, I have been here in India for a prior planned event. I would have personally very much wanted to have been there, but couldn’t do so because of the commitment that I had here, and that’s important to keep those kinds of commitments.”
The fallout from the attack is likely to be top of the agenda for Obama when he meets with the British prime minister, David Cameron, in Washington later this week.



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