Liberals – including liberal journalists – don’t usually appear ignorant of or insensitive to anti-Semitism, here or abroad. But the national media hasn't been very interested in President Obama's odd declaration in an interview with liberal friends at the website Vox.com that the Jews targeted for death in a kosher grocery in Paris were somehow "random" victims.
The gunman called from inside the grocery and told the media "I have 16 hostages and I have killed four, and I targeted them because they were Jewish.” But Obama said the American people should be “deeply concerned” when terrorists “randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris.” On Tuesday, AP reporter Matt Lee pressed State Department spokesman Jen Psaki to correct her president, and she refused.
MATT LEE, AP: Yesterday, the president at his news conference raised some eyebrows by saying that the victims of the shooting in Paris at the kosher deli were random. Your colleague at the White House has apparently said something similar today.
Is that really -- was it -- I mean, does the administration really believe that these -- that the victims of this attack were -- were not singled out because they were of a particular faith?
JEN PSAKI: Well, as you know, I believe if I remember the victims specifically, they were not all victims of one background or one nationality. So I think what they mean by that is, I don't know that they spoke to the targeting of the grocery store or that specifically, but the individuals who were impacted.
That's actually wrong: all four victims were Jewish, even if not everyone in the store was Jewish. Lee might be seen as a cynical reporter, but Psaki is more cynical in suggesting the dead people's Jewishness is no concern of the administration.
Only Fox News found this bizarre exchange newsworthy on Tuesday. The others skipped over it. It continued:
LEE: Well, don't you think that the target may be -- even if all the victims -- even if the victims came from different backgrounds or different religions, different nationalities, wasn't the -- the store itself was the target, was it not? I mean...
PSAKI: But that's different than the individuals being -- I don't have any more to really...
LEE: All right. Well, does the administration believe that this was an anti-Jewish -- an attack on a Jewish community in Paris?
PSAKI: I don't think we're going to speak on behalf of French authorities and what they believe was the situation at play here.
LEE: But -- yeah, but if a guy goes into a -- a kosher market and starts shooting it up, you don't -- he's not looking for Buddhists, is he?
PSAKI: Well, again, Matt, I think it's relevant that, obviously, the individuals in there who were shopping and working at the store...
LEE: Who does one expect -- who does the administration expects shops at a kosher -- I mean, I might, but, you know, an attacker going into a store that is clearly identified as being one of -- you know, as identified with one specific faith -- I'm not sure I can understand how it is that you can't say that this was a -- that this was a targeted attack on the Jewish community.
PSAKI: I just don't have more for you, Matt. It's a - it's an issue for the French government to address.
Psaki then went on Twitter and claimed they've always denounced this attack as anti-Semitism. On The Five, former Bush spokesman Dana Perino announced:
I've been nearly unable to breathe since I saw that, and I would tell -- you've got to go back and watch the entire State Department and White House briefing. Because, you cannot believe that they're actually saying what they're saying, they're arguing about the president's adverbs. Then after they leave the podium, after those performances they both go back to their desk and they tweet something that says, "We have been perfectly clear all along that it was an act of anti-Semitism." OK. So is tweeting better than speaking? In this world now are we just supposed to say, OK, just go to Twitter and not believe that what you said at the podium five minutes ago.
