U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry remarked Tuesday that the attacks on Charlie Hebdo are much more understandable and have a better rationale than the Friday Paris attacks.
Kerry flew to France following the G20 talks in Turkey and delivered remarks at the U.S. embassy on the Paris attacks, which left 129 dead, CBS News reports.
“There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that,” Kerry said. “There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of – not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, ‘Okay, they’re really angry because of this and that.’ This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate.”
In the middle of his talk, Kerry was quick to scrub out his use of the word legitimacy and substitute it for rationale, but the damage was done. Commentators demanded serious action against Kerry for what appeared to be a loose justification of the Charlie Hebdo attacks in January, which resulted in 11 dead and 11 injured. Two Muslim brothers part of al-Qaida burst into the offices of Charlie Hebdo, a satirical magazine, and opened fire in retribution for an apparently offensive rendition of the prophet Muhammad. For the Paris attacks, Islamic State claimed responsibility.
Former New York Gov. George Pataki took to Twitter, saying that “John Kerry should immediately resign or be fired. Saying there was a rationale for the Charlie hebdo massacre is inexcusable.”
GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush read Kerry’s comments aloud while in South Carolina.
“There should be no empathy and there’s no rationale for barbaric Islamic terrorists who want to destroy Western civilization,” Bush said, according to The Wall Street Journal.
GOP Sen. [crscore]Cory Gardner[/crscore] tweeted, “I’m calling on Secretary Kerry to apologize for these offensive remarks. Terrorism is terrorism.”
They’re still waiting for Kerry to issue a response. House Committee on Foreign Relations Chairman [crscore]Ed Royce[/crscore] wants Kerry to correct the record as soon as possible.
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