Update to this story.
Via Politico:
A day after suggesting that there was a “rationale” for the January terrorist attack at the French satirical publication Charlie Hebdo, Secretary of State John Kerry was explicit on Wednesday in rejecting any grounds for a terrorist attack.
“There are no grounds of history, religion, ideology, psychology, politics, economic disadvantage, or personal ambition that justify the slaughter of unarmed civilians, the bombing of public places or indiscriminate violence toward innocent men, women and children,” he told the Overseas Security Advisory Council in Washington, adding that “such atrocities can never be rationalized, and we can never allow them to be rationalized. No excuse. They have to be stopped.”
On Tuesday in Paris, Kerry commented that there is “something different” about the Charlie Hebdo attack than the assaults on a concert hall, a stadium and restaurants in and around the city last Friday that claimed the lives of more than 100 and injured hundreds more. Republicans took aim at the remark on Tuesday and Wednesday, with New Jersey Gov. and presidential candidate Chris Christie telling Fox News that the secretary, fresh off his trip to France, “needs to get some sleep and shut up.”
Earlier in his address, Kerry called this a moment in history to make a stand.