Fox News helped Donald Trump exploit the mass shooting in Orlando by suggesting that President Obama spoke about gun control and not the words "radical Islamic terrorism" in his remarks because he's a secret Muslim. And Hillary Clinton is under his secret-Muslim control.
Cohost Steve Doocy set up the attack on Obama for buddy Trump. First, Doocy played a clip of Obama condemning how easy it is to get assault weapons. While Obama spoke, the lower-third got the meme going with the following: "'RADICAL' REFUSAL: PRESIDENT MENTIONS GUNS, NOT RADICAL ISLAM."
Doocy added, “So, Mr. Trump, the president called for more gun controls. He also said it’s terror and he said it was a hate crime but he did not say it’s Islamic terrorism. And for that reason, you say he should quit!”
Trump took the opening and ran with it to his happy place of bigoted hate mongering.
TRUMP: He doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands. It’s one or the other. And either one is unacceptable, number one. And number two, calling on another gun ban – I mean, this man has no clue.
As if the guy who doesn’t know what the nuclear triad is, spent weeks promoting completely uninformed – or else deliberately deceptive – suggestions about President Obama's birth, misstated the trade deficit with China by more than $150 billion and more has a clue.
Doocy and his cohosts, Ainsley Earhardt and Brian Kilmeade, hung on every word.
Instead of challenging anything Trump said, Doocy prodded him to attack Obama and Hillary Clinton a little more specifically.
DOOCY: So Mr. Trump, you say that the president should resign and you say Hillary Clinton, if she can’t say it, she should just bow out of the race?
Trump went on to imply that Obama has “got something else in mind” when it comes to stopping terrorist attacks, as evidenced by the fact that he won’t say the words “radical Islamic terrorism,” which would, in Trump’s world view, be a more effective way to stop terrorists than preventing them from getting guns.
“She won’t utter the words either,” Trump said, as part of his predictable attack on Clinton. “Unless you utter the words and unless you know what’s going on, you’re never gonna solve the problem,” he pronounced, without offering any evidence.
“I’ve been given a bad rap” about Muslims, he argued. Then he dubiously claimed that “tens of thousands” of radicalized Muslims are “pouring into the country.”
Doocy and Earhardt planted expressions on their faces to signal they thought every Trump utterance was of major import.
Earhardt, the segregation apologist who is "so tired" of protecting the rights of "the minority", also helped promote Trump’s bigotry. She said that when she traveled the country during the primaries, she learned from people “why you’re their favorite pick, why you became the nominee and they’re all saying because you’re not politically correct. You say what’s on your mind.” She went on to blame political correctness for people not reporting the shooter to the police. “What’s your message now for America who has been so fearful because they didn’t want to be, um, called Islamophobic?” she "asked."
Unfortunately for her, Trump didn’t pick up her cue for several more minutes. But when he did, (after one more prompt, this time from Kilmeade) Trump’s dog whistle may have been more than she hoped for.
TRUMP: We’re led by a fool. […] We’re led by a man that is a very — look, we’re led by a man that either is, is, is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind. And the something else in mind, you know, people can’t believe it. People cannot — they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the ways he acts and can’t even mention the words, "radical Islamic terrorism." There’s something going on. It’s inconceivable.
Not a single host pressed Trump to explain what he meant.
As the segment closed, Kilmeade gratuitously noted that Clinton “also did not mention radical Islam.”
TRUMP: And she won’t mention it because she’s afraid to mention it because her boss will be angry at her and her boss has tremendous power over her and you know why that is, OK?
Why, because she’s a secret Muslim, too? Or just under the spell of the guy who hasn’t been her boss for almost four years? Of course, nobody challenged Trump about that, either.
Watch this disgusting display, aided and abetted by Fox News, below, from the June 13 Fox & Friends.
I’m impressed by the seriousness of the FBI. They had this guy under surveillance for MONTHs and closed the case when they found NOTHING.
That’s actually reassuring for the ordinary American because it shows that the country is not (yet) on track towards McCarthy-like approachy.
As more information is obtained on the gunman, it is increasingly clear that he was a crazy looking for an “acceptable” excuse to go out and vent his hatred. And religion has always provided a convenient cover for the crazies of the world.
Core to his argument is the hypocrisy of thinking political correctness is enabling ISIS while foolishly believing enforcing his own version will end terrorism. Always missing from FOX’s crap analysis is the simple point Obama and Clinton are experienced hands in diplomacy well aware raging against Islam alienates key allies in the fight against terrorism.
Idiot Trump rages against people not ratting these terrorists out overlooking the simple truth any casual observer of the news understands: This mass murderer was on a terrorist watch list and had been interviewed by the FBI. Did I mention his coworkers ratted him out?
Which makes his rage against gun control outrageous. Does he think people on a terrorist watch list should pass background checks?
Idiot Trump can’t help but rage against letting Muslims into the country even though he admits the shooter was an American citizen. He connects the two fear mongering without proof there are many immigrants who think like the shooter.
Trump also imagines Syrians are pouring into America. Huh? The ignorant bastard overlooks the shooter, Omar Mateen, was of Afghan descent, not Syrian. Between 2011 and 2015 (most recent numbers I found) only 2,290 Syrians have been allowed in despite over 22,000 referrals by the U.N. since 2013.
Of course, Trump’s ignorance on much of this is explained by the fact he refused to name his policy experts when softballed on the issue. Maybe I can: larry, Curly and Moe. Ah, hell, I said no snark but I’m getting pissed just thinking of a know-nothing buffoon like Trump running our nation.
Despite his embarrassing performance he can’t stop boasting how smart he is. Did you realize NATO is taking his sage advice on counterterrorism? What a f—king joke!