WASHINGTON (AP) – As world leaders linked arms and marched in defiance of terror attacks in Paris, there was one glaring absence: a high-level representative from the United States.
President Barack Obama spent the weekend at the White House. Vice President Joe Biden was in his hometown of Wilmington, Delaware. Secretary of State John Kerry was on a long-planned trip to India. Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris attending a security summit, but did not make an appearance at the march on Sunday.
The Obama administration was instead represented by U.S. ambassador to France Jane Hartley.
That decision sparked criticism of the administration, including from Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., who called it a mistake for the U.S. to not have higher level representation at a rally supporting the nation’s oldest ally.
“Eric Holder was in Paris, and maybe John Kerry should have gone, or somebody else,” Rubio said in an interview on CBS This Morning. “There’s a plethora of people they could have sent. I think in hindsight I hope that they would have done it differently.”