President Barack Obama, who’s under fire from Republicans and some in the press for failing to schedule the usual leader-to-leader meetings during his United Nations visit this week, did meet briefly on Tuesday with the president of Yemen and the secretary-general of the United Nations, according to the White House.
Obama dropped in on a meeting Deputy National Security Adviser John Brennan was having with Yemeni President Abd Rabbo Mansour Hadi at the U.N., Deputy National Security Adviser Ben Rhodes told reporters on Air Force One as Obama returned to Washington Tuesday afternoon.
“President Obama stopped by that meeting to thank him for steps taken to secure our embassy and diplomats in that country,” Rhodes said, alluding to protests against U.S. diplomatic posts across the Muslim world over an anti-Muslim video posted online.
Obama also had “courtesy call” meetings with Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon and the current president of the U.N. General Assembly, Vuk Jeremic of Serbia. (Obama’s visit with Ban was on a schedule released by the State Department, but was absent from Obama’s public schedule released late Monday by the White House.)
Asked why Obama thought countries that don’t respect free speech rights would respond to his forceful defense of freedom of expression, Rhodes didn’t answer directly but said the president wanted to explain to world leaders how critical those protections have been to the development of the United States.
“He wanted to give the clearest affirmation that he could of why free speech is so important to the United States,” Rhodes said. “Different countries don’t share the same legal protections we have for free speech, the same traditions of free speech, but people need to understand that’s a core American value and it’s been essential to the progress of our democracy throughout our history.”
Republicans have faulted Obama for not being vocal enough in defense of free speech when the anti-Muslim video controversy first broke out.
Rhodes also noted Obama remarks about the ubiquitous nature of the Internet and how, these days, speech was going to get around roadblocks governments try to set up.
“People need to be able to deal with those types of challenges without resorting to violence, without resorting to this pattern of outrage that we’ve seen in recent years.”
During the gaggle on AF1, Rhodes also brushed aside a reporter’s question about a possible meeting between Obama and Israeli President Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday. The White House aide said he had no scheduling announcements to make on that front.
