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Jon Stewart on Obama missing Paris: 'Je suis to be kidding me'

"Of course no grand show of liberty is complete without America -- the country that invented freedom."

By Aileen Graef

WASHINGTON, Jan. 13 (UPI) -- Jon Stewart took a segment of his show Monday to cover the "Je Suis Charlie" rally in Paris and criticized President Barack Obama for not showing up to support France.

Millions of Parisians gathered to remember the lives of those killed in the terrorist attack on the satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. World leaders including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, British Prime Minister David Cameron and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu led the march with French President Francois Hollande. Well, not all the world leaders were there.

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"Of course no grand show of liberty is complete without America -- the country that invented freedom. That's why President Obama was there front and center," he said before rolling clips of everyone noting the president's absence.

"How could the U.S. not be there when representatives of such beacons of freedom and lack of censorship as journalist-punishing Russia was there?" asked Stewart. "Journalist-jailing Turkey was there. Egypt... 'nuff said. Palestinian cartoonist-jailing Israel was there. And of course, our greatest ally, Saudi Arabia was there -- although a little out of breath having just days ago flogged a blogger."

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Attorney General Eric Holder was in the city during the rally, but in a move that Stewart called "unbelievable," he did not attend.

The White House admitted the mistake and said Secretary of State John Kerry would be traveling to Paris later this week -- a sad effort to make up for the lack of U.S. presence in Stewart's eyes.

"Je suis to be kidding me," he said.

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