White House defends Obama's decision to skip Scalia's funeral

The White House on Thursday defended President Barack Obama’s decision not to attend Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia’s funeral and accused critics of using the funeral as a “political cudgel.” “There’s so much rancor in politics and partisanship that we allow ourselves to get drawn into different corners to the extent that some people actually want to use the funeral of a Supreme Court justice as some sort of political cudgel,” White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters Thursday. “The president doesn’t think that that’s appropriate, and, in fact, what the president thinks is appropriate is respectfully paying tribute to high-profile patriotic American citizens, even when you don’t agree on all the issues. And that’s what he’s going to do.”