After the attack on Bataclan, which is just blocks away from the Charlie Hebdo offices, cartoonist Johann Sfar posted a cartoon to his Instagram encouraging people not to pray for Paris, saying “we don’t need more religion”.
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State Department spokesman John Kirby sought later Tuesday to clarify Kerry’s remarks, tweeting that Kerry “didn’t justify Hebdo attacks, simply explained how terrorists tried to”. They kill people because of who they are and they kill people because of what they believe.
Mr. McCain’s claim comes after highly controversial comments from Mr. Kerry in which the secretary suggested there was a “rationale” behind the terrorist attacks at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris earlier this year.
AP Photo/Mindaugas KulbisCandles are placed outside the French embassy in Vilnius, Lithuania, Saturday, November 14, 2015, for the victims in Friday’s attacks in Paris.
“For the secretary of state of the United States to stand up and say that there was a few rational for what happened in January?” It’s, we understand this is extraordinarily hard situation.
By Tuesday afternoon, Kerry was heavily criticized on Twitter. (Realistically, 9/11 was not retaliatory either.) In both cases, the terrorists were striking fear into the heart and head of Western countries and the freedoms enjoyed in them, such the the freedom to say stupid things. “They hate us because they assume we are not religious people”, he wrote. Kerry said what he meant, but then realized how bad it sounded and backed off. But conceding the “legitimacy” of the Charlie Hebdo murders was central to his point, that last Friday’s attacks were materially different.
You know, Mark Halperin, I brought up John Kerry this morning.
France’s Charlie Hebdo journal, the target of lethal attacks by Islamist militants last January, defended party-goers over gun-toters in a new edition following Friday’s Paris assault.
“These folks were plotting and planning, obviously for a few time in a very intricate plan, and we didn’t pick it up”, he said.
The secretary of State said he understands those who peacefully want to resolve conflict with the terrorists, but “this is not a situation where we have a choice”.
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Chris Christie, the governor of New Jersey, told The Weekly Standard that Kerry’s comments “were offensive” and ‘truly stupid’.
