The Intercept asked prominent Republican lawmakers on Capitol Hill on Tuesday if they reject Donald Trump’s conspiracy theory that American Muslims are shielding terrorists.
Trump said in a speech Monday that Muslims “have to work with us. They know what’s going on. They know that [the Orlando shooter] was bad. They knew the people in San Bernardino were bad. But you know what? They didn’t turn them in.”
Despite the fact that Trump’s speech was covered by CNN, NBC, MSNBC, Fox News, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and elsewhere, many lawmakers pled ignorance about his remarks.
“Honestly, I do not know what Mr. Trump said because I’ve been working on the defense bill,” Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., told us. “But are American Muslims cooperating with law enforcement authorities?” we followed up. “You can say whatever you like, sir, but I have not seen any of it,” he said, and ducked into an elevator.
McCain has condemned anti-Muslim conspiracy theories in the past, even among his supporters. During the 2008 presidential election, McCain was praised for telling a crowd of supporters that then-Sen. Obama was “not an Arab” and “a decent family man and citizen.” McCain was booed by his supporters.
Sen. Mark Kirk, R.-Ill., also refused to comment. “I didn’t see Donald Trump’s speech,” he told us. We asked him if he thinks Muslims are cooperating with law enforcement. He repeated himself and then entered an elevator, leaving us behind.
Kirk is in a tight Senate race against Rep. Tammy Duckworth, D.-Ill., who criticized him for his previous support of Trump. Last week Kirk rescinded his endorsement of Trump over comments Trump made about U.S. District Judge Gonzalo Curiel. But Kirk previously came under fire in 2005 for saying that he is “OK with discrimination against young Arab males from terrorist-producing states.”
Sen. Bob Corker, R.-Tenn., refused to say anything about Trump’s remarks other than that he was “somewhat discouraged by the direction things are going, in the campaign itself.”
“I don’t feel like I have to respond to everything that’s being said out there,” Corker said.
You would think this would be an easy conspiracy theory for Republican lawmakers to reject: the bigoted accusation that 3.3 million American Muslims are identifying and shielding terrorists in their midst. But you’d be wrong.
Some lawmakers expressed uncertainty.
Rep. Peter King, R.-N.Y., the powerful former chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee called it a “difficult question,” and said “we’ll talk some other time.” In 2011, King received backlash from the Muslim community for saying that “80 percent of Mosques in this country are controlled by radical imams.”
“I have to make that assumption, I don’t know,” Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said, when asked whether American Muslims were cooperating with law enforcement. “You’re asking me for a definitive answer. I have no basis to make that answer. I don’t know.”
When confronted with Trump’s words, Rep. Frank Guinta, R-N.H., repeatedly stated that he didn’t see the speech so he didn’t want to comment. After being asked whether Muslims in particular are cooperating with law enforcement, he offered the nonanswer: “All law-abiding Americans are cooperating with law enforcement.”
Some Republicans cautiously stood by Trump’s remarks.
“I’m certain not everyone is cooperating. I do agree not everyone is cooperating,” Rep. Blake Farenthold, R-Texas, said. We followed up by asking if it’s true that Muslims are systematically teaming up to withhold information from law enforcement. “I don’t have any facts to judge the truth of that statement. I don’t have enough facts to judge whether that’s true or not,” he concluded.
“I haven’t heard what he said, or any details about it,” said Rep. Barry Loudermilk, R-Ga., Asked whether he thought American Muslims were cooperating, Loudermilk said “I think that it’s segmented. Some are. Some aren’t.”
Only one lawmaker interviewed by The Intercept was willing to plainly reject Trump’s remarks. Sen. Jeff Flake, R.-Ariz., who has called on members of his party to withhold endorsements from Trump. When asked whether American Muslims are withholding information about terror plots, Flake said “I see no evidence of that.” He went on to denounce an immigration ban on Muslims entering the United States.
“That’s why I’ve always said that a ban on Muslims, a religious test, it’s wrong. It’s constitutionally inconsistent,” Flake said. “More than that, it’s the opposite strategy we should employ if we want to win the war on terrorism, and identify the .001 percent of those who want to do us harm. The last thing we want to do is go out and offend the 99.99 percent of those Muslims that feel the same way that everybody else does.”
The idea that American Muslims are systematically shielding terrorists is unfounded. The community has actually been active in preventing terrorism. In the 12 years that followed the September 11 attacks, almost two out of every five al Qaeda plots in the United States were prevented thanks to tips generated from American Muslims, according to a database compiled by the Muslim Public Affairs Council.
Kirk;Israeli mole traitor.Hopefully Trumps coattails will exercise these demons.
Two of Trump’s children are married to Jews, and have converted to the Jewish faith. His Grandchildren are also being raised in the Jewish faith. Trump won’t do squat.
Hey don’t pick on those poor Repos! They can’t be expected to know what their own presidential candidate is saying, can they? Are they supposed to know who David Duke is, too?
Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and John McCain all have extensive financial relationships with one rather small group of Muslims who have a clear record of financing and supplying ‘radical Islamic terrorists’ over a long time period, but typically with American government support – i.e. the Saudi Royals and elements of their government such as the Saudi intelligence service, the GID.
They just don’t want to talk about it; John McCain’s dealings with the Saudis include a $1 million grant to his Arizona-based non-profit foundation; the Clintons have tens of millions in Saudi donations to various affiliates from the University of Arkansas to the Clinton Foundation, and the Saudis have invested heavily in various Trump business deals.
Trump’s race-baiting hate-filled invective is just cynical posturing aimed at whipping up far-right support during the Republican primary; it’s probably going to backfire on him in the general election, as the Republican leadership probably understands.
What neither party wants to talk about is how the rise of ISIS was fueled by the CIA-Turkey-Israeli-Saudi-Qatar coalition’s post-2011 effort to finance proxy forces in Syria in order to remove Assad from power; another spectacular blowback failure even worse than Libya which has sent millions of refugees fleeing the war zone and spurred a dramatic increase in global terrorism; discussion of this just highlights the gross failures of U.S. foreign policy, which is really a bipartisan neocon/neolib strategy involving many Democrats and essentially all Republicans.
Get out your popcorn, this farce is just getting started.
BRAVO sir, BRAVO!
Donald, yesterday:
http://crooksandliars.com/2016/06/donald-trump-muslim-americans-dont
Yeah, I’m really worried about assimilation. How dare those people preserve their own culture and traditions?
And it’s not just the Muslims. Why, every time I ride MUNI, in San Francisco, I’m surrounded by people speaking Cantonese and Spanish — young people, second and third generation! . They could be plotting anything! And I’m sure they aren’t turning each other in.
I think I need more guns.
And those white folks with deep Southern accents! Tough to understand them, and they’ve been hiding white-supremacist terrorists for decades.
I am pro Muslim and find Islam better in many ways than Christianity,but I still recognize that 70 years of bombing Muslims either through our protege Israel or US,has created immense hatred for US b]y them,and the massacres perpetuated by Muslims here against Americans simply because they are American does create the suspicion that yes,it is a new conundrum not faced by America before,as prior immigrants were happy to be here.
This is a brave? new world of shite,caused by USzion arrogance and murder,and the hate will not diminish until we stop the violence.
There is only one candidate,flawed maybe,not perfect,but the only one who will put Americans first,not Israel,and that is Trump.
We aint in Kansas anymore.
So, I’m confused. You are pro Muslim, and pro Trump?
And what does it mean, he will “put Americans first”?
By the way, Trump has said that as President, he will move the US Embassy to Jerusalem.
and if Trump ever becomes president (most likely it will continue with Republicans regardless) it will get really interesting when he declares that a christian denomination that is shielding another christian denomination that is shielding another which is shielding various left leaning anti-Trump groups that are also shielding muslims who are of course shielding terrorists must be stopped!
Then that dwindling group of lucky Americans left over will breathe a collective sigh of relief that they don’t fit into any of those categories and think to themselves that there was always something fishy about those others and be grateful to have a strong leader that is willing to go after enemies of this United States of America.
But come to think of it “united” is such a politically correct way of describing this country. That name is where all of our problems began. It wreaks of tolerance and something eww! like being living in peace with your neighbors.
Just say no to saccharin folks. Just say no!
Working on a novel?Please.Saccharin is the hell bitch personified.
Trump’s assessment is not significant to the establishment
because, to these corporate tools
(both democrats and republicans – no matter what they may say),
the vast majority of people should be included on
a list of terrorist supporters because the vast majority
of people are insufficiently avaricious. Clearly, the necessary
lust for money (the established god) is too weak in the majority
of people and they must be punished for their lack of devotion.
It is pathetic that anyone would seek words from any of
the corporate tools who masquerade as public servants.
McCain (and the rest) can’t be bothered with notions about
civil rights, there is a “defense” bill waiting and the machinery
of death and degradation must be fed.
“Feed me Seymour, I’m hungry!!”
The Muslim wife is on record saying she knew about the Orlando attack but did nothing to stop it.
And the title of this article calls it a “conspiracy theory”, next time fact check. I thought liberals were suppose to believe in facts and numbers… Looks like the religious are beginning to become the left-wing party, so sad.
The key word in this article is “pretend” . Great use of an photo example of the word “pretend”! I want to pretend that this is all a dream. I used to think John McCain was an American hero. But now I pretend that he’s not a traitor. Ive often thought that Isis was pretend, no way our leaders could use tax payer money to lure the mujahideen out of retirement. Or was it alqaeda they used to create a new and more determined terror front for the great deception. They pretend to know nothing how Isis acquires all these American made vehicles and weapons. I pretend this is all a nitemare. That this once great country would never make deals with terrorist! Reagan made it clear that America will never deal with terrorists. I suppose he was only pretend too! I pray for the day when the world wakes up and stops pretending everything will be alright. As long as the United States Inc . And its cooperate tentacles are allowed to impose its will on people of all nations ,including its own. We can keep pretending that war is necessary, central banks are a good , and that humans are free! Sometimes ,I guess it’s just easier to pretend!
Good grief, that was a great comment. You see, I live in *Texass, and thinking that aligns with mine is….nonexistent. Ty.
All we need to do is to set up a process for someone to challenge being on the terror watch list, then.
That’s a compromise that would both shield innocent people from being denied the ability to travel, as well as keeping terror suspects from buying guns.
Is that really so complicated?
The Republicans can’t comment yet because they don’t know what to say. Their globalist open border handlers haven’t told them yet. When they do the RINOs will come out in solidarity in condemnation against Trump. Meanwhile, Trump is speaking the truth and if we don’t get smart very quickly, expect a s–t storm of these terrorist attacks.
Marco Polo said a long time ago that radical Muslims chop off heads and moderate Muslims hold the feet of the victims. Islam will never change. Moderate Muslims hide terrorists. The mastermind of the Paris terrorist attack that killed 130 people lived in the open for 4 months in a Belgium Muslim community and NO ONE said a thing.
Blowback;You blow up people there,and they blow up people here.
Who started it?We(West) and Israel.It will never end until Yankee comes home.
All the refugees in Europe are a result of Western destabilization and destruction by weaponry and globalization on their homelands.
Self made seppeku by Western politicians,and the peoples of Europe and US are about to go postal.
And yeah,I’m sure there is some level of collusion by family members or fellow refugees re terrorists,its a natural human condition for people to support revenge on their transgressors,even living in the nation of refuge,and blood is thicker than water,ask Zionists.
But we created this,before 1948 there was absolutely a dearth of Islamic fundamentalism and wahabbism,at least concerning US..
I don’t remember that, but it’s been a while since I’ve read Marco Polo; he did spend a bit of time with Arabs and Persians before going to China with the Mongols, and the Arabs were still preserving and advancing classical Greek and Roman culture. But back when he was writing, establishment Christians were burning people at the stake, though not as aggressively as they would a century or two later, and were running “Crusades” to loot and terrorize the Holy Land.
“Radical Islam” wasn’t a meaningful concept – that’s a 20th/21st century response to western colonialism. Muslims of Polo’s day fought each other over issues of “who’s in charge here”, just like Europeans did, except that their fights had been rudely interrupted about the time Polo was born by Genghis Khan and the Mongol Hordes invading.
Basically, I’m calling bullsh*t on your “quote” from Polo, as well as your opinions about Muslims in general.
Well, the reps are in a bind, as TrumpSucks is in all likelihood their nominee. They have to evade this question if they want the party to win. In addition, many of them are Muslim haters or Muslim wary, I am guessing. Playing dumb doesn’t usually work, though it’s akin to human nature, as is lying when cornered. We aren’t all noble. At least Senator Jeff Flake, R.-Ariz gave a logical answer.
Please publish a list of Muslim murderers who were handed over to law enforcement by the people in their community. Informers don’t count because they fool us for reward, like the Pakies did when they caught innocent tourists and pretended they were Talibans. This will easily refute what Trump said. The trouble is, it’s impossible to even begin making such a list.
The last link in the article leads to an info page for a report, with the full report downloadable in .pdf format at the bottom of the page that does exactly what you ask for. So not only is not impossible, but has already been done.
Of course, I wouldn’t expect that someone who uses a term like “Packies” to be smart enough to know how to follow a link..
Thanks a lot for the information. It seems there definitely are some very good Muslim folks here, and at the same time there are some very bad Muslim folks planning mass murders that the good folks have themselves identified. Donald Trump is right that we really don’t have a clue what’s going on, and it will be much appreciated if the good folks can help us throw the bad folks over the wall. For that to happen Mexico first has to pay for the wall and then we go ahead and build it. All this will take some time, so meanwhile let’s not complicate the situation further by allowing other folks of undetermined character to come in. I think this is a good plan of action.
You do realize at this very moment,somewhere in the WH?SD ?or Pentagon? is planning some type of terrorist operation against foreigners,in their own homes and lands,8000 miles away, right?
If you think 9-11 was the first shot in this war for Zion you are sadly mistaken,and who was the shooter I might ask?I have no real idea,despite Ziomsm proclamation and certainty,all from certifiable serial liars.
The problems that Muslims are facing can be solved in a single day.
All the Shia, Sunni, Sufi, Wahabi, Salafi and whatever other mutations of Muslims that exist worldwide should send their representatives to a meeting where all would shout Allahuakbars, shake hands, kick each other butts, kiss each other cheeks, say sorry and asalam alaikums and walaikum asalams to each, make some love if there is mutual agreement, and then the next morning return back to their people and declare universal unification of all Muslims under the green banner of one Allah and one Prophet Mohammad.
If this happens all Muslims will find peace that day and prosperity will soon follow.
Alas …. only Sufi Muslim appreciates this. If Muslims don’t look after themselves, who else will?
You mean to say that ‘Palestine-Israel’ problem is also part of that?
I would not call it a problem Ob, Id call it the Occupation of Palestine by Israel.
Well,to be honest,Christianity also has a lions share of genetic mutations,where alleged Christians promote a racist Christian hating state because one day they’ll all perish in the fires if hell for not being the hateful Alleged Christians they claim to be.
Islam is a problem(to neolibcons) because of all major religions,its about the only current one where its adherents will kill themselves to kill us,a very unheard of shock for the hedonist and self absorbed West.
In practical terms the establishment is giving clear signals that it won’t actually allow Trump to be president. Many establishmentarian Republicans are already declaring fealty to Hillary Clinton, which should make Clinton supporters concerned – but unsurprisingly it just makes them happier about winning.
Trump is not remotely as persuasive or as fascist as Hitler was, and the comparisons insult intelligence; plus the elite will never, ever allow him to do the outlandish things he throws out there, for *disguised* right wing behavior under the guise of the Democratic Party is -since Bush (but introduced by Bill Clinton’s capitulations) – the ruling class’s new favorite modus operandi for being effectively evil with impunity.
Trump’s a boorish and politically illiterate conman blurting out dog-whistle statements in order to inflame shallow reactionary/liberal divisions and provide an obviously caricatured foil to Clinton, so that the farce of ‘electing’ Hillary looks more reasonable than the obvious oligarchical move that it is now and will be in November.
The establishment has chosen Clinton. The rest is a farce, a charade.
Trump is just blabbering the first stereotypically reactionary musings that come into his head in order to sell himself to the Fox News crowd – because this is his part in the theatrical show. Looking back to his earlier life it’s obvious he doesn’t really mean any of this repulsively mega-authoritarian blather, which shows how cynical this whole thing is, and he knows he’ll not get any real power anyway to enact his ugly verbal fireworks since Hillary has been anointed already. And she will simply entrench the worst features of the status quo, pushing the whole system even further to the right.
Acting as though this whole Trump/Clinton situation is legitimate and not rotten to the core seems to me to be merely enabling our abusers. No other challengers than a corporatist warmonger on the left and a billionaire self-help scammer on the right (neither of whom represent liberalism or conservatism in any decent sense) are permitted to choose from, and so all critiques fall to one side or the other – never escaping that calculated manipulation that forces the dualistic thinking into place .
The correct response to both Hillary and Donald is to laugh at both of them and dismiss their every word, for they are both liars whose only purpose is to serve the establishment which enriches them.
Green Party 2016.
Incidentally, the new GOA report should be of interest to those readers who realize authoritarianism is ALREADY out of control in America: FBI’s Facial Recognition Software Has Never Been Properly Tested For Accuracy
“‘This report is startling,’ said Alvaro Bedoya, director of the Center on Privacy and Technology at Georgetown Law. ‘The FBI has, in effect, created a nationwide face recognition system that includes not just criminals, but tens of millions of law-abiding Americans who were never notified of this enrollment. The nature and scope of this project is unprecedented.'”
#GoBernieOrGoGreen #JillNotHill
One problem is that Trump seems to represent a large plurality of the electorate, at least a big chunk of GOP voters that the GOP took for granted for too long. NY Review of Books has an interesting review of the Donald phenomenon (although it’s easy to say, now, he was “inevitable”, hindsight being a wonderful thing).
http://www.nybooks.com/articles/2016/06/23/why-trump-was-inevitable/
Fox News may have stoked this sentiment over the years, but by design or instinct, the Donald has given it voice. And there’s a very real possibility, now, that he might win the Presidency. He might not suit the interests of the ruling class, any more than Mussolini was beneficial to Italy’s interests or its elites, but here he is.
Fascism is US already.What else is invading subjugating and destroying nations worldwide for money,power and hegemony?
Hitler was a novice compared to US.We’ve murdered more innocents than he,possibly,and its ongoing.
Trump is a nationalist,his aims are for America,not Zion,and his policies are much more amenable to good relations worldwide than any other candidate.
This group think propaganda re Trump as being more warlike than our current shites is an incredible expose on the absolute phony liberals,who eat MSM shite every day as gospel.Unbelievable gullibility and stupid ideological prisons.OY indeed.
Mr. Trump: http://youtu.be/OUE9E1MxY2I
The Orlando Shooter’s wife drove him round a few target’s but did not alert
Law Enforcement …Trump Is correct .
While the serial political duplicity and hypocrisy, noted in this missive, among extremist neoCONservatives and their fellow-traveler neoLiberals is well known behavior, it occurs to me that an inquiry regarding this topic that needs the attention of some quality investigative reporting may involve taking a deep-dive into; why it is that too often when any concerned citizen – regardless of race, religion, or gender – blows the proverbial whistle on suspected illegal activity, they run the very real risk of being accused and prosecuted, by the very authorities that appealed to their support and assistance, as if they were complaisant or compliant in the illegal activity which they were reporting?
Note:For instance, the ex-wife of the Orlando killer, according to MSM reporting, has voluntarily told the FBI what she knows regarding her ex-husbands actions; and now several pundits, politicians and other psycho-babblers are calling for her to be prosecuted as a conspirator in his crimes.
Why should any informed citizen feel comfortable trusting that they will not become the unwitting victim of some bizarre entrapment scheme perpetrated under the guise of patriotic law enforcement, simply because they sought to expose societal harm or wrongdoing? Even if in only a small part our federal Department of Justice has devolved into a criminal enterprise, how can any citizen be asked to trust such an institution with their liberty and freedom?
“The public good before private advantage.” TP
As Usual,
EA
Correction/edit The MSM is now claiming that it is the killer’s “current wife”, not his “ex-wife” that is speaking to the FBI.
As Usual,
EA
He has a current wife as well as an ex-wife.
They both spoke to the authorities.
Investigations still going on to determine if current wife was victim of domestic terrorism in the marriage.
You’re jumping to conclusions. ‘As usual’.
Trump’s about this close to calling for his followers to take their own action against American Muslims. It’s only a matter of time before a Muslim “Kristallnacht” occurs somewhere in our sick country. I really think that it’s just a matter of time before this happens in some form or another with a billionaire asshole like Trump around.
America’s racists are just like the fucking Nazi’s in that they won’t take responsibility for their own incompetence and destructive actions, like supporting a half century of an American foreign policy that’s been little more than, “Whatever we want is ours, and if you get in the way in the slightest manner, we will kill you.”
Since these home grown, authority-worshipping xenophobes don’t have the balls to initiate these kinds of abuses on their own, they’re simply waiting for the proper authority figure to tell them it’s ok, go ahead and do it.
Enter Donald Trump…
Let’s just examine the facts, nothing wild or fanciful, just the facts.
On 9/11 America was attacked by a group of Sunnis.
The underwear bomber was a Sunni.
The Times Square car bomber was a Sunni.
The shooter at Ft. Hood was a Sunni.
The brothers responsible for the Boston Marathon bombing were Sunnis.
The husband and wife shooters in San Bernardino were Sunnis.
Omar Mateen, responsible for the Orlando massacre, was a Sunni.
Am I missing something here? Not Shi’a, not Sufi Muslims, not Ibadi, but Sunnis.
No, I do not agree with America’s foreign policy, which is why I’ve voted Green Party since 1996, but I equally do not agree with the recent remarks by President Obama and Hillary Clinton.
Maybe because the Shiite-majority country (Iran) is not attacked by the United States but mostly Sunni-Muslim states are. Anyways, that’s just stupid what you have said there – ’cause all of them were the US citizens. 9/11 attackers received flying training in the Europe and the US.
Syria is run by Alawites,and protects its Shia minority,and we attack them.There is only one Shia dominated nation,Iran,and they haven’t attacked anyone for hundreds of years.
MCCain has a solution: “Bomb, bomb, bomb bomb Florida”
McCain has a solution: “Bomb, bomb, bomm Florida”
A sidebar on our relationship with the Muslim world.
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/jun/15/cia-torture-program-september-11-medical-staff-instructions-details
“McCain has condemned anti-Muslim conspiracy theories in the past, even among his supporters. During the 2008 presidential election, McCain was praised for telling a crowd of supporters that then-Sen. Obama was “not an Arab” and “a decent family man and citizen.” McCain was booed by his supporters.”
–whoooooa! Before reporting or implying it was a sincere rejection of Obama’s-a-Muslim bigotridiocy, you might wanna see the comment by Danny P on NYT at http://www.nytimes.com/2016/06/13/opinion/a-party-agrift.html#permid=18828222 . In short: staged bull. Not unlike Kasich’s “compassion”, now that I think of it.
‘… The introducer informed the crowd that the first question had been hand picked by the campaign before the event actually started and the cameras started rolling. That question was “Barack Obama supports child pornography on the internet. What would you do as president to fight it?” To which McCain responded “I know he won’t pass (some bill at the time to force internet companies to turn over search results to the government), but I wouldn’t quite put it the way you did.” …’
That there’s a whole are-Arabs-not-decent-family-men-and-citizens-too? question is a whole other comment.
You’re twisting what he said. He didn’t say “systematically”. He didn’t say all 3.3 million. Get a grip.
USA is the most powerful country on earth. Americans have to be careful. Hitler is a product of democracy election. D Trump have some similarities to Hitler. His style of speech …etc
Muslim terrorists’ killing will be there forever no matter who is USA’s president. Because the root cause is their…..
I did wonder if any of them would have the courage to speak up or rescind their support, if only out of common decency. I guess the majority answer is no. Kudos to Flake (and others still speaking up and holding out on endorsing Trump), I do hope he speaks from integrity and courage, he’s not up for re-election until 2018.
Interesting read: Paranoid style in American politics, written in 1964
http://harpers.org/archive/1964/11/the-paranoid-style-in-american-politics/
oh no he di’nt.
oh yes he did.
Someone say religious extremism? We got yer regular bloody sacrifices for the NRA gods, church of holy WMD “thou shalt make war”, st. Guantanamo the guardian of torture, the 10 commandments of wallstreet “10 ways thou shalt rob America and do anything for money”, church of the federal reserve with st. Zion as Guardian of the Holy Ponzi, the holy order of armed street gangs, the church of the Holy Promotion of Poverty and Despair, mistress Hillary Clinton divine servant of the money pimps, and someone is complaining about what?
The only thing America has to defend is the it’s trade,marked and patented brand of offence.
I don’t know what he says about one of the most important issues facing us, at one of the most important moments we are facing, but I’ll use my power and influence to get him elected to run the country. To quote another famous republican presidential candidate: “Oops.”
I kind of wonder which Muslims you’re talking about. The wife who admits she knew what he was planning? The father who said he didn’t support that kind of thing, then turned out to be on tape praising the Taliban? How about the Imam who says he doesn’t preach hate and swears that this guy – who regales everybody he works with with stories about terrorism – never talked about anything like this? I mean, the Imam whose tiny mosque produced both this guy and the first American suicide bomber for al-Nusra. There is an aspect of this that is reminiscent of the Niihau incident after Pearl Harbor, though to be sure, these family members are not as convincing as a genuinely random set of strangers. Still, we know what happened last time… so the trick here is to accept what we can do that doesn’t really undermine constitutional rights – make a sanitized version of Trump’s proposed moratorium – and not let it go to the point where people are put on no-gun lists based on having the same name as somebody else without evidence or appeal, let alone to the point where people start trying to ban Islam within the U.S.
I was not aware that the mosque “produced” anything. Perhaps you could back that statement up with something other than your own prejudice.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2016/06/15/orlando-gunmans-wife-under-scrutiny-in-struggle-to-piece-together-motives/?utm_term=.839f301c466a
“wife warned Mateen not to carry out attacks.”
Why didn’t she “warn” police? Nightclub? Press?
I do not have a lot of confidence in articles such as that. Maybe she knew only of general possibilities, maybe she could have been the one who encouraged him to do it. We just do not know.
Well, there sure are a lot of sets of three side by side monkeys on capital hill. I guess this sets the tone of the coming campaign. Nobody will know what Trump will say, but a lot of excrement will hit the fan in general the direction of the public.
First comment!
Fine piece Zaid and Alex. Imagine all those legislators who didn’t know anything about that speech. Guess they turned off ALL media – how else could they escape knowledge :-) No wonder Congress gets such poor ratings.
But I am glad to hear about Sen. Flake. Don’t know much about him, but here at least he’s making good sense. A rarity for Washington.
I agree with you, Sen. Flake’s comments are intelligible and it’s obvious he has done some homework on the topic of terrorism, the Muslim community, and constitutional rights.
By the way, congratulations on posting the first comment ;)
@musefish –
Thanks :-)
Are you enjoying keeping up with all the recent articles here at TI? Whew – someone must be working some overtime!
Jim Himes, R-Ct, walked out on the congress moment of silence in protest of their do nothing resolve.
http://www.npr.org/2016/06/14/482055750/democratic-rep-jim-himes-refuses-to-stay-silent-after-orlando-shooting
@Barabbas –
Interesting link. At least this Congressperson was willing to DO something to support his stand on the issue. Interesting, too that there was some brouhaha about it.