When White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest first took to the airwaves on Wednesday morning to discuss the terror attack on Charlie Hebdo magazine in Paris, he referred the attack as "an act of violence."“Based on what we know right now, it does seem like that’s what we’re confronting here.
"This is an act of violence that we certainly do condemn and, you know, if based on this investigation it turns out to be an act of terrorism, then we would condemn that in the strongest possible terms, too," Earnest said on CNN when pressed if the attack was an act of terrorism.
Thirty minutes after his appearance on CNN, Earnest told Fox News that the attack was "an act of terror that we condemn in the strongest possible terms.”
Fox News' Bill Hemmer grilled Earnest: “Just 30 minutes ago you called it a terrible act of violence … and now you call it terror, what changed in 30 minutes, Josh?”
"This is still something that we’re looking into. I know that the French president has called this an act of terror, it does seem to be that’s exactly what this is.
"Again, this is an act of violence against innocent civilians. This is a newspaper that has been targeted in the past and while we’re still waiting to see who’s actually responsible for this and what their motivation may have been, if it is what it seems to be, this isn’t just an attack on innocent civilians, this seems to be an attack on some basic universal human values, human rights — freedom of the press, freedom of expression, free speech — these are values that we hold dear in this country, these our values our allies in France hold dear," Earnest said.
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=otBMW35H5Ik]
[youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p0YCjm1dSM8]
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