Post-march, Kerry to visit Paris
While brushing aside criticism that the Obama administration did not send a high-ranking official to Sunday's unity march in Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry says he will visit the French capital later this week.
Kerry, who has been in India helping prepare for President Obama's visit to that country later this month, told reporters he "would've personally very much wanted to have been" at the rally in Paris, but had diplomatic commitments in India.
"But that is why I am going there on the way home, to make it crystal clear how passionately we feel about the events that have taken place there," Kerry said. He is expected to be in France on Friday.
More than 3.7 million people — including 40 world leaders — participated in Sunday's rally to express solidarity in the wake of last week's terrorist attacks in France.
Asked about the absence of high-ranking U.S. officials, Kerry said: "This is sort of quibbling a little bit in the sense that our assistant Secretary of State Victoria Nuland was there and marched, our ambassador was there and marched, many people from the embassy were there and marched."
Kerry also noted that the U.S. has been providing intelligence and law enforcement help to the French since the attacks.
"Attorney General Eric Holder was in Paris attending a security summit on combating terrorism. He recorded interviews that appeared on several U.S. news outlets Sunday, but was not spotted at the unity march.
"On Sunday night, a White House official who asked not to be named added: 'It is worth noting that the security requirements for both the President and (Vice President) can be distracting from events like this — for once this event is not about us!' The official did not address how other prominent world leaders were able to work around the security requirements."