How badly did the Obama administration misjudge skipping the massive anti-terrorism rally in Paris? So severely that even ardent liberal Rosie O'Donnell on Monday attacked the administration. Yet, Nicolle Wallace, a former John McCain adviser who was supposed to represent conservatism on The View, defended the President. O'Donnell railed, "Couldn't Joe Biden have been there and wasn't Eric Holder in Paris?"
The comedian described the event as "'We are the World,' but we didn't show up." Wallace spun, "I don't think we should say anything bad about our own country or our own leader, because he wasn't there, because I'm sure there were reasons. No leader didn't want to be there."
Fighting back against O'Donnell's critique, Wallace lectured, "People need to understand that when the American president goes somewhere, thousands of people go with him." She added, "I'm guessing that the White House decided that it would have taken away from this event."
The best Wallace could do was admit that "we should have done a better job."
When even the liberal O'Donnell is making the same point as conservatives and Wallace is defending Obama, clearly ABC failed in finding a conservative replacement for former host Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
On Sunday's This Week, Wallace urged the GOP's 2016 contenders not to run against the President's record: “Republicans would be wise to make this about the future and, you know, I don't recommend that any of them run against Obama, they should run against whoever their opponent is.”
In the past, she's also hailed a potential Hillary Clinton run, saying, "I'm a huge fan."
A partial transcript is below:
The View
1/12/15
11:20
ROSIE O'DONNELL: To switch to a serious note, how about what happened in Paris? World leaders united and marched yesterday to show support after last week's terror attack, and the U.S. is getting a lot of criticism for not having a top official present. I mean, shouldn't we have been there? It was like "we are the world," but we didn't show up.
MARIO CANTONE: Someone should have been there.
NICOLLE WALLACE: Let me explain – I don't work for the White House –
CANTONE: But you used to.
NICOLLE WALLACE: People need to understand that when the American president goes somewhere, thousands of people go with him. And I don't know this for a fact, I'm just guessing, but I'm guessing that the White House decided that it would have taken away from this event. This event was exquisite.
I balled when I watched this. The leader of Jordan was standing in a line. He's a direct decedent of the prophet who was ridiculed in the magazine that inspired the terrorist attack, linked arms with the Israeli Prime Minister. These were world leaders of all different faiths and political theories. And they walked arm-in-arm. It was really beautiful. And the crowd was made up of people, you know, Jews holding up signs that said, "I'm Arab." Christians holding up signs saying, "I am Jew." And this was an incredible event, for the moment. You can YouTube it. You can look it up on the internet and I don't think we should say anything bad about our own country or our own leader, because he wasn't there, because I'm sure there were reasons. No leader didn't want to be there.
O'DONNELL: Couldn't Joe Biden have been there and wasn't Eric Holder in Paris?
WALLACE: He was there and we should have done a better job. We should have thought this through. But this really was a day about standing with France. I wish we'd been there.
CANTONE: What about Johnny Depp? Someone should have been there.
