President Barack Obama owes the Jews of Europe an apology for saying a kosher deli in Paris was "randomly" targeted after the Charlie Hebdo attack, says Fox News Channel's Dana Perino.
On Tuesday's episode of
"The Five," Perino, one of five co-hosts, said she had been "nearly unable to breathe" since watching press conferences by White House press secretary Josh Earnest and State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki on Tuesday seemingly backing up Obama's words.
Obama talked to Vox.com on Jan. 23, and the interview was released this week. In it, he said, "It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you've got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris."
Grilled about the comment Tuesday by ABC News' Jonathan Karl and Fox News' Ed Henry, Earnest said the "adverb" Obama used was meant to indicate the victims weren't targeted for who they were, but for the place "they randomly happened to be."
Psaki, in her press conference, incorrectly stated that not all of the four men killed were Jews.
Perino, who served as press secretary to President George W. Bush, noted that both Earnest and Psaki later took to Twitter to say that the administration has said all along that the attack was anti-Semitic.
"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 is what the president has asked you to say?"
Perino also said that, considering the time lag between when the interview was conducted and posted online, someone on Obama's staff should have anticipated the reception the comment would receive and tried to fix it.
"I actually think that the president owes the Jews of Europe an apology," Perino said. "They deserve better from the president of the United States. Anti-Semitism is on the rise and somebody must stick up for them."
"How about the Jews of the world deserve an apology?" co-host Kimberly Guilfoyle added.
© 2025 Newsmax. All rights reserved.