Oh stop with the security excuse. The Secret Service was never asked if it was feasible to go to the demonstration.
The President just didn’t want to go. It’s not more complicated than that.
And? You didn’t give a link for death threats received by Netanyahu. So it’s still your guess.
Oh come on, it’s fun to watch them twist themselves into pretzels.
Diplomatic proceedings are complicated even with nations that have calm and reasonable temperaments. This is us, and the French.
Do you actually try to comprehend the voices in your head, or do you just type their utterances and then have a lie down?
You’ve been given a large, cited figure for the threats received by the leader of the great satan, number 1 enemy of the extremist islamic world. You think that Netanyahu gets more, but you don’t have a number, and you’re including the ones that aren’t actually sent.
You’re not so much a valid person, as a walking, mouth breathing case of confirmation bias.
You think that Netanyahu gets less, but you don’t have a number. It’s just a guess.
Cite for either or both claims?
A Secret Service official said the agency was not asked to draw up security plans for a potential presidential trip to Paris in advance of Sunday’s march.
“We weren’t asked or notified about a trip,” the official said. But the agency had Secret Service agents on the ground in Paris, per its standard operating procedure.
“It would have been a challenging advance … based on what we know,” Secret Service spokesman Brian Leary said. But Leary did not say that such an advance would have been impossible.
During the White House briefing, Earnest suggested security challenges were a factor in not having the president travel to Paris. But Earnest acknowledged the Secret Service could have pulled it off. An agency official noted previous “last minute” presidential trips have happened during the Obama presidency, including a hurried visit to South Africa in December 2013 for the memorial service for Nelson Mandela.
As if the President NEVER goes to public events on short notice. Sure it’s challenging, but when the President wants to do it, he does it. He didn’t want to do it. Occam’s Razor requires no cite. it’s those who want to suggest a more complicated explanation that need to prove it. And they can’t. The “security concerns” are demonstrably false. So come up with something better and stop beating that drum.
So how do we know Obama didn’t ask his Chief of Staff, who said nah, not enough time in your schedule?
Actually, that wasn’t a real question. It’s just really funny watching you dingbats try to make this nothing into a something.
This is the biggest scandal in Obama’s presidency, ergo, greatest president ever.
You asked for a cite for this statement: “The Secret Service was never asked if it was feasible to go to the demonstration.”
You got it. Now you’re moving goalposts. And sure - not enough time in Obama’s schedule. Enough for him to watch football playoffs though.
It’s like Obama and I are twins. I had time to watch the playoffs, but not to fly to Paris, too.
You really find that hard to explain?
“DIDn’t have time” is a plausible answer. Unfortunately, it lets the public know he didn’t care enough, so that’s not what Earnest was instructed to say.
Netanyahu is a big terrorist target and it was a risk for him to go to the Paris march. It was, perhaps, unwise for him to go because of that. He probably did put people at risk and his presence probably did increase security costs for Paris.
However, some of the Jewish people killed in the supermarket siege likely had dual nationality with France and Israel, given that (if you read the obituaries of the dead they had family in Israel and are going to be buried there). Either way, they had a direct connection to Israel and so there was a valid reason for Netanyahu to go despite the risk.
No Americans were killed. No reason for Obama to go. If any Americans had died, either he should have gone or he should have not gone, sent someone senior and given a statement about why he didn’t go, presumably due to the risk. Neither of those things happened because no Americans were killed.
I note you dropped your comment about Merkel - why pick Merkel, anyway? European leaders went because they’re in the EU and there’s common travel between EU states meaning that, to a large extent, their terrorist threats are ours too in a much more direct way than this applies to the US.
A few other “world leaders” from outside Europe did go, though I’ve yet to see a cite from adaher saying that 50 world leaders actually attended (despite me asking twice) and I don’t know if any of them had a direct link to the dead (apart from France and Israel, there were direct links to Algeria and Tunisia - don’t know if their leaders went, but it’d make sense if they did). TBF adaher might be running into the same problems as me in that my searches regarding Paris and march keep turning up weather reports.
The Palestinian leader went. Presumably it was to show that not all Muslim nations agree with the attacks, and if he hadn’t gone it would have been reported as him supporting terrorism.
The President of Mali is a bit more random at first glance, but Mali is a former French colony and France sent troops to help stop Islamist (not Muslim, but Islamist) occupation not that long ago. The current leader of Mali feels a debt to France for that. He still needs support from France and other countries to combat Islamic extremism in his country. I can understand him going.
As far as I can tell, apart from the non-European leaders I’ve named (and all three are from the African continent, which has a fair few countries) and European leaders, not many “world leaders” from outside Europe attended the march. Australia, Canada, India, Pakistan - no. Was there anyone at all from South America or Asia? Presumably there was someone from some country in those regions otherwise the “60 world leaders” is going to be a little bare, but I can’t find anyone actually named on anything anywhere.
When you look at it in that respect - “leaders from the EU, plus countries directly affected by the deaths of their citizens, plus two countries (Mali and Palestine) that have good reasons to be there,” it makes it ring a little hollow to claim that Obama should have been there.
Were there any Germans killed? Poles? Irish? Czechs? Swedes? Georgians?
Couldn’t find it yourself?
Here’s a list. Except Eric Holder is listed and of course he couldn’t be bothered to attend.
So, the State of the Union speech was so good that you’ve got nothing. You’re still here beating this dead horse.
President Obama & his people decided he should not horn in to that photo op in Paris. If he had, you & your pals would be bitching about the expense. Because that’s what you do.
Incorrect. The White House is claiming that it was NOT the President’s decision.
So hey, is this a scandal yet?
Cite?