Anger over President Obama’s Margaret Thatcher funeral ‘snub’
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President Barack Obama decision not to dispatch any high-ranking members of his administration to former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s funeral on Wednesday has peeved critics on both sides of the pond.
The White House tapped ex-Secretaries of State George Shultz and James A. Baker III to lead the American delegation, which also includes Barbara Stephenson, the charge d’affaires at the U.S. Embassy in London, and Louis Susman, former U.S. ambassador to the U.K., according to The Associated Press.
Not good enough, say the British tabloids.
“[…Downing] Street is most angered by rejections from Obama, First Lady Michelle and Vice-President Joe Biden. And none of the four surviving ex-US leaders — Jimmy Carter, George Bush Sr, Bill Clinton and George Bush Jr — is coming either,” The Sun reported.
British Prime Minister David Cameron’s spokesman also refuted reports that the Obama administration snubbed Thatcher.
“Absolutely not and that the seniority of the America dignitaries attending was reflective of her global stature,” spokesman Jean-Christophe Gray told reporters on Tuesday. “He welcomed the fact that two former Secretaries of State with whom Lady Thatcher had worked very closely were attending, saying it was testimony to the esteem in which she was held”
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