Secretary of State John Kerry drew a distinction Tuesday between the two terror attacks in Paris this year, saying the terrorists who attacked the Charlie Hebdo office in January had a “rationale” as opposed to Friday’s events which Kerry described as “indiscriminate” violence.
“There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that. There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow and say, ‘OK, they’re really angry because of this and that,'” Kerry said during remarks at the U.S. Embassy in Paris.
“This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate. It wasn’t to aggrieve one particular sense of wrong. It was to terrorize people. It was to attack everything that we do stand for. That’s not an exaggeration,” Kerry added.
Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula claimed responsibility for the attacks on the Charlie Hebdo office in Paris and other areas this past January in which 12 people died. The terrorist group said it was in response to the satirical magazine’s mocking of the Prophet Mohammed.
ISIS has claimed responsibility for the far more deadly and widespread attacks in Paris Friday. They came just one day after a drone strike killed the ISIS terrorist known as “Jihadi John” and after U.S.-backed forces reclaimed the city of Sinjar in northern Iraq from the terror group.
Critics quickly pounced on Kerry’s remarks.
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, a 2016 Republican presidential candidate, said of the secretary of state: “His comments today were offensive…truly stupid.”