White House Acknowledges Error in Not Sending a Top Official to March in Paris

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/01/13/us/politics/obama-is-faulted-for-not-attending-rally-in-paris.html

Version 0 of 1.

WASHINGTON — The White House, facing a storm of criticism for President Obama’s absence from Sunday’s peace march in Paris, said Monday that his team erred in failing to dispatch a high-ranking American official to join the show of solidarity against terrorism. But French officials quickly rejected the idea that Mr. Obama had snubbed the event.

“It’s fair to say that we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” Josh Earnest, the White House spokesman, said at his daily briefing with reporters, which was dominated by questions about the lack of a prominent American presence at the march.

Asked to respond to critics who questioned the decision not to send a more recognizable American official other than Jane D. Hartley, the United States ambassador to France, Mr. Earnest said, “We agree.”

Yet he offered no rationale as to why no such representative — including Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who hastily traveled to Paris to attend a counterterrorism meeting there on Sunday and recorded television interviews in the hours before the march — made an appearance. He said that the decision had not been made by Mr. Obama.

President François Hollande of France let it be known on Monday that he was not among those offended.

“President Obama supported France in their common struggle against terrorism,” said Claudine Ripert-Landler, Mr. Hollande’s head of communications, adding that Mr. Obama’s visit to the French Embassy in Washington on Thursday to sign a condolence book was “a rather exceptional gesture.” She added, “Mr. Obama’s attentions have been very important to Mr. Hollande.”

Mr. Earnest offered no details about the internal White House discussions that led to the decision by Mr. Obama’s team not to send the president or Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. — who often attends state funerals on short notice — to Paris. But he cited scheduling and security concerns as playing a part.

“The security requirements around a presidential visit, or even a vice-presidential visit, are onerous,” Mr. Earnest said, noting that the Secret Service would have had to secure a large outdoor area, potentially making it harder for other people to attend. “It would have been very difficult to do so without significantly impacting the ability of common citizens to participate.”

He also said, “We’re talking about a march that came together with essentially 36 hours’ notice.”

Still, on the day after a rally that drew more than one million people and some 40 heads of state following terrorist attacks in Paris, the lack of a top American official became another example of what critics call tone-deafness by the president and his senior staff.

Even some Democrats said they were mystified by the lapse.

“I was puzzled that the United States did not have a high-level representative participating in the march,” said former Representative Lee H. Hamilton of Indiana, a Democrat who sits on the president’s Homeland Advisory Council and directs the Center on Congress at Indiana University. “It’s a missed opportunity. This was a world-shaking event for Paris, and France has been a good ally of ours for decades. We should have been more visible in our support for an ally under duress.”

Reince Priebus, the chairman of the Republican National Committee, took to Twitter to criticize the president. “Obama declining to show solidarity with over three million in France is beyond crass, even for this administration,” he wrote in a post.

The march followed the shootings of 17 people in separate attacks last week at the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo and at a kosher supermarket. Leaders at the rally included Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain, Chancellor Angela Merkel of Germany, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority. Official administration schedules said that Mr. Obama was at home at the White House on Sunday, and that Mr. Biden was at his residence in Wilmington, Del. Neither had public events, and aides declined Monday to say how the president spent his day.

Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas and a potential presidential candidate, called Mr. Obama’s absence “symbolic of the lack of American leadership on the world stage, and it is dangerous.”

In an opinion article posted on Monday by Time magazine, Mr. Cruz wrote, “Our president should have been there, because we must never hesitate to stand with our allies.”

Secretary of State John Kerry announced Monday that he would travel to Paris on Thursday. “I really think this is sort of quibbling a little bit,” Mr. Kerry said of the criticism, before the White House went public with its mea culpa.

Speaking on Monday in the state of Gujarat in India, Mr. Kerry said that he had been unable to attend because of his trip to Asia, but that he would visit Paris on his way home “to make it crystal clear how passionately we feel about the events that have taken place there.”

Mr. Hamilton said the episode would not cause a split between the United States and France, but he predicted it would be a symbolic moment that would not be entirely forgotten by the French people.

“It will be remembered,” Mr. Hamilton said. For at least a day, the uproar surrounding the symbolism of the march drowned out the message that Mr. Holder had brought to Paris. He said the Justice Department would assist the French in their investigation into the attacks and declared, standing beside French leaders: “We are all citizens of France.”

Mr. Earnest said he could not speak to whether the president had any “personal regret” about staying away from the March, but suggested his team recognized that it looked bad.

“To the extent that anybody had an opportunity to estimate it in 36 hours,” Mr. Earnest said, “I think what you can say is that this kind of symbolism is important.”