CNN anchor Jake Tapper said he’s “ashamed” no high-level government officials appeared at any of the rallies in support of France, following last week’s terrorist attack on a French satirical magazine’s newsroom.
Tapper wrote in an op-ed for CNN.com on Monday, “I say this as an American — not as a journalist, not as a representative of CNN — but as an American: I was ashamed.”
In the piece, Tapper said he was in Paris during a massive rally Sunday, where he was thanked by attendees for covering the event.
“I find it hard to believe that collectively President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden, Secretary of State John Kerry, Secretary of Defense Chuck Hagel, Treasury Secretary Jack Lew and Attorney General Eric Holder — who was actually in France that day for a conference on counterterrorism — just had no time in their schedules on Sunday,” Tapper wrote. “Holder had time to do the Sunday shows via satellite but not to show the world that he stood with the people of France?”
He also criticized congressional Republicans and potential 2016 GOP candidates who did not appear at the rally or show any significant solidarity with the French. (It’s worth noting, though, that on the day of the attack, Romney wrote a Facebook note, saying, “How tragic is the loss of life and how outrageous is the attack on freedom.”)
“I hope it’s not American arrogance, a belief that everyone should express shock when something bad happens to us but that our presence at an international rally is worth less than a ticket to the Green Bay game when the victims speak in accents we don’t understand,” Tapper continued in his note.
With help from a link on the influential Drudge Report, Tapper’s op-ed immediately performed as one of CNN.com’s top-read stories.
