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WH Press Secretary: ‘I Can’t Account For’ My Statement Ignoring ISIS Victims’ Christianity [VIDEO]

Alex Griswold Media Reporter
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White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest admitted during a press conference that he “can’t account for” why a statement put out under his name neglects to mention that fact that the 21 Egyptians beheaded by ISIS were killed for their Christian faith. (RELATED: White House Statement On Christians Beheaded By ISIS Doesn’t Mention That They’re Christians)

FOX WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT ED HENRY: In a statement — I want to ask you, because you put it out under your name– you talked about the murder of twenty-one citizens and I’m curious why didn’t you mention it was twenty-one Christians killed by Muslims? Is that relevant?

EARNEST: It sure is, because the ISIL extremists who carried out the attack indicated that the reason they were killing wasn’t just because they were Egyptian, but also because they were Christian. And I think the president has been very clear — the president talked about this actually in his Prayer Breakfast speech that he gave earlier this month. There’s a responsibility of people of all faiths to stand up and speak out when individuals try to use faith and distort faith to try to justify an act of violence.

HENRY: Given that, why were you not clear on Sunday? It went out under your name. Why didn’t you say twenty-one Christians were killed?

EARNEST: I try to be clear here. I — I can’t account for that specific line in the statement. But we have been clear here that we condemn that murder. In the op-ed that was published today in, on a variety of occasions it has been pretty clear here, that we condemn the outrageous killing of these Egyptian citizens because of their Christian faith.

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