White House officials don't view things through a political lens, according to the White House press secretary.
"I think understandably people look at a lot of things that happen in this town through a political lens. That's an understandable pursuit. That's just not that we look at them," said White House press secretary Josh Earnest at the daily press briefing Monday. "When the president's out making these decision about which foreign leader to call, what sort of military actions to order up, balancing the pros and cons of a specific strategy or intervention. The president's not worried about politics, he's worried about the safety and security of the American people and that's what he's focused on."
Earnest was answering a question about the optics of the president golfing following the death of James Foley, and a pair of articles in the New York Times and Washington Post on the topic.