President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden will not attend the funeral of former Cuban leader Fidel Castro.
White House press secretary Josh Earnest told reporters to "stay tuned" as to which top U.S. officials, if any, would attend the Dec. 4 funeral, The Hill reported.
The decision appeased top Republicans who had demanded the president avoid the ceremony for the 90-year-old Castro, who died last Friday.
Obama's statement on Castro's death came under fire for not forcefully condemning the Communist leader, instead saying only he "altered the course of individual lives, families, and of the Cuban nation," and "history will record and judge the enormous impact of this singular figure on the people and world around him."
Earnest defended the stance – and Obama's decision to press for a thaw in relations with the island nation.
"There certainly is no whitewashing the kinds of activities that he ordered and that his government presided over that go against the very values that our country has long defended," Earnest said, adding the question for Obama was "are we going to be rooted in that past, or are we going to look to the future?"
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