White House, State Dept. Shrug Off FBI Director’s Absence at Summit on Combating Extremism
Published at
FBI(WASHINGTON) — FBI Director James Comey did not attend this week’s White House summit on Combating Violent Extremism, while the head of Russia’s Federal Security Service did, prompting questions.
The New York Times pointed out that Comey is “the most senior official charged with preventing terrorist attacks,” making his absence strange.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest explained on Friday that the decision was made “to make sure that there wasn’t a perception that this conference was overly focused on law enforcement tactics.”
Instead, the White House says, “we just invited [Comey’s] boss,” referring to Attorney General Eric Holder in his stead.
As for the Russian attendance at the summit, Earnest said that he was not aware of any hesitancy in hosting the Russian security leader, despite his being on the European Union’s sanctions list.
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki said that the Russian attendance was part of “modern day diplomacy,” which she says “requires that we work with some countries on some issues, even when we have strong disagreements on others.”
Follow @ABCNewsRadio
Copyright © 2015, ABC Radio. All rights reserved.