WELL, YES: White House: ‘It’s fair to say’ we were wrong on Paris unity rally.
The White House erred in not sending a higher-profile representative to this weekend’s solidarity march in France following a terrorist attack on a satirical newspaper, press secretary Josh Earnest said Monday.
“It’s fair to say we should have sent someone with a higher profile to be there,” Earnest told reporters at the White House.
“Had the circumstances been a little bit different, I think the president himself would have liked to be there,” Earnest added. . . .
The White House would not discuss whether it considered sending the president at any point.
Earnest said he did not know why Attorney General Eric Holder, who was in Paris earlier Sunday for a series of high-level counterterrorism meetings, was unable to stay to attend the march. He also said he did not know what the president, who remained at the White House throughout the day, did with his time.
Earnest did say that the decision not to send a higher-profile administration official was made on the staff level, and Obama did not personally decide not to send someone of a higher profile.
So, Valerie Jarrett, then.