A mix of left- and right-leaning media personalities cringed Wednesday afternoon after the White House announced President Obama would not attend Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral this weekend.
“This is pretty weak and kinda’ classless of Obama,” the Daily Beast’s Noah Shachtman said on social media.
National Review’s Tom Rogan added, “Unless this is at request of Scalia family, this is incomprehensibly absurd.”
Some reporters, including BuzzFeed’s Jon Passantino, Politico’s Marc Caputo and the Associated Press’ Nick Riccardi, were less opinionated in their reactions, and responded to the story with simple exclamations of surprise, including “whoa,” “wow,” and “oh man.”
Though Obama will not attend Scalia’s funeral Saturday, he and his wife will appear at a service Friday evening to “pay their respects,” White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Wednesday afternoon.
Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Dr. Jill Biden, will attend the funeral service Saturday.
But even with news that the Bidens will attend the service, a mix of media still found it distasteful that Obama himself does not plan to make an appearance.
“Obama last week: Decries partisan, divisive, toxic Washington atmosphere. Obama this week: Declines to attend Antonin Scalia’s funeral,” said the Washington Free Beacon’s Aaron MacLean.
MSNBC’s Chris Hayes added, “Some amazing advice my mom gave me once: ‘If you’re wondering whether you should go to the funeral, you should go to the funeral.'”
“Oh man…is Obama planning to golf through Scalia’s funeral?” asked conservative author and Fox News contributor Guy Benson.
The Daily Signal’s Katrina Trinko said elsewhere, “we’re not a nation that skips funerals of our political foes … oh wait.”
“Obama skipping Scalia’s funeral without any urgent excuse looks petty and graceless, even if there’s some reason he doesn’t want to say,” said Bloomberg View’s Megan McArdle.
However, not everyone found the White House announcement distasteful. For some, Obama’s scheduled absence isn’t a thing to care about.
“Who cares if Obama misses the Scalia funeral? I doubt the Justice would,” said talk radio host Laura Ingraham.
It’s fairly common, but not longstanding precedent, for either the president or his vice president to attend Supreme Court funerals.
The last time that a member of the Supreme Court died in office was in 2005 with the death of Chief Justice William Rehnquist. Former President George W. Bush not only attended Rehnquist’s funeral, but he also eulogized him.
