Sen. John McCain on Wednesday dubbed Secretary of State John Kerry “the most inept secretary of state” of all time following Mr. Kerry’s comments about this year’s terror attacks in Paris.
Mr. McCain’s claim comes after highly controversial comments from Mr. Kerry in which the secretary suggested there was a “rationale” behind the terrorist attacks at the Charlie Hebdo offices in Paris earlier this year. Mr. Kerry was trying to make the case that, unlike the Charlie Hebdo assault, last week’s attack in Paris lacked any justification or rationale.
The Arizona Republican said such words are unacceptable, echoing previous criticism from New Jersey Gov. and 2016 presidential candidate Chris Christie, among other Republicans.
“I agree with Chris Christie. It does reveal an underlying view of these things that is really harmful and is damaging, but John Kerry has probably been the most inept secretary of state, certainly in my life time,” Mr. McCain said on “Your World With Neil Cavuto” on Fox News. “Good example, the other day there’s these terrible things going on. Palestinians going around with knives and stabbing people so Kerry hops on a plane, flies over, he’s going to settle it and he leaves and nothing changes.”
Mr. Kerry’s initial remarks were meant to separate the motivations behind the Charlie Hebdo attacks and last week’s assault.
“There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, and I think everybody would feel that,” Mr. Kerry said. “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. This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate.”
• Ben Wolfgang can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.
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