Obama Confirms: At Least One American Died in Airliner Crash

Daniel Doherty | July 18, 2014 12:50 PM

After enjoying a juicy burger and attending two Democratic fundraisers last night, the president was widely panned by critics and supporters alike for failing to adequately respond to the crises overseas. Responding to that criticism today, however, he strongly condemned the attack on Malaysian Airline 17.

“Their deaths are an outrage of unspeakable proportions,” he said.

Most significantly, too, he addressed the endless speculation in the media that 23 Americans were on board.

“We know at least one American was killed,” he intoned. His name was Quinn Lucas Schansman.

At the same time, he said his prayers were with the victims’ families -- and especially those victims’ families from the Netherlands, who lost more than 100 citizens yesterday.

“The Dutch are close friends and stalwart allies and I want the Dutch people to know we stand shoulder-to-shoulder with them in their grief,” he said.

At which point he reiterated the facts as we understand them.

“Evidence indicates the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile,” he said. He affirmed the missile was launched from an area of Ukraine known to be occupied by pro-Russian separatists. He also noted that these same pro-Russian separatists had recently bragged about bringing down other aircrafts in the region. Nevertheless, he was cautious and unwilling to dole out blame.

“There has to be a credible international investigation into what happened,” he intoned.