Politics & Government

Rubio slams WH for not sending a bigwig to Paris rally

By William Douglas - McClatchy Washington Bureau

January 12, 2015 11:31 AM

The crowd gather during the march in Paris, France, Jan. 11, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Paris on Sunday in a massive show of unity and defiance in the face of terrorism that killed 17 people in France's bleakest moment in half a century.
The crowd gather during the march in Paris, France, Jan. 11, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Paris on Sunday in a massive show of unity and defiance in the face of terrorism that killed 17 people in France's bleakest moment in half a century. AP
The crowd gather during the march in Paris, France, Jan. 11, 2015. Hundreds of thousands of people marched through Paris on Sunday in a massive show of unity and defiance in the face of terrorism that killed 17 people in France's bleakest moment in half a century. AP

Sen. Marco Rubio, a potential 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said Monday that the Obama administration erred by not sending a high-level official to Paris for Sunday’s massive unity rally in the aftermath of the deadly attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

‘I thought it was a mistake not to send someone,’ Rubio, R-Fla., a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said on CBS’ ‘This Morning.’ ‘Look, I understand when the president travels he brings with him a security and communications package, which is intense. And I understand you drop that into the middle of something like this, it could be disruptive. But (Attorney General) Eric Holder was in Paris and maybe (Secretary of State) John Kerry should have gone or somebody else…’

More than two million people, including 50 world leaders, attended the rally Sunday. French President Francois Hollande was joined by German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas.

The U.S. ambassador to France, Jane Hartley, attended the rally. Kerry is scheduled to travel to France on Thursday.

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