Fox News “patriots” exploited what seems to be a serious terrorism threat in order to blame President Obama in advance.
I wasn’t watching Fox News on 9/11 but I’m willing to wager that Fox thought that was a time to come together and not criticize the Bush administration for not stopping it. I’m also willing to wager that if, God forbid, we are hit with another attack, that Fox will not show the same kind of team spirit.
Host Tucker Carlson said in his introduction to the segment, “Sources tell Fox News that ISIS views this holiday as quote a key target. So what, exactly, is the federal government doing to ramp up security and keep the rest of us safe?”
Yet most of the discussion was about what the federal government is not doing.
“Why now?” Carlson asked about the threat increase. He said some reports have shown “a demonstrable rise in terror across the globe.” He repeated the question, “Why?” Any halfway intelligent Fox watcher knew that he was setting up Obama for blame.
Guest Michael Waltz, a former advisor to Dick Cheney, said ISIS is “growing in capability” and that he’s convinced another Tunisia-like attack is “imminent.” He warned, “We need to get ready." Then came the Obama criticism. “And I’m convinced we have to take more aggressive action to hit them where they’re planning and plotting, rather than trying to play defense here at home,” he said.
Carlson probed for more. “Are we doing that?” he asked the other guest, former deputy assistant director of the FBI, Danny Coulson. “It does seem like we have a pretty passive position when it comes to ISIS. …Can we rest assured the United States government is doing all it can to protect American citizens from this threat?”
Surprise! Coulson thought not. He said his position is, “Hit ‘em there,” rather than in “Dallas, Texas.”
Carlson found a new reason to blame Obama. “ISIS is thriving in places with power vacuums, where there is no central authority, no meaningful central government that can control its own borders. And so why isn’t the United States government doing all it can to help central governments in that region rather than to undermine them? That only helps ISIS, no?”
Waltz disagreed – but only to criticize Obama for other reasons. “This is a war of ideas and this administration won’t even admit the nature of the enemy, that this is an Islamic extremist movement that’s growing. …We are losing that war of ideas.” He said that groups like ISIS “metastasize when there is an utter lack of American leadership.”
Carlson moved on to find fault with Obama for "making, at least, common cause with Iran in our fight against ISIS in Iraq.”
Waltz agreed and said that Obama wants a nuclear deal with Iran “so badly” that everything else “has fallen into second, third or fourth place.” Waltz claimed, “Iran knows it, and is taking that position and running with it. …Our negotiating position has become so weak and Iran realizes an opportunity that they’re running as hard as they can with it.”
Finally, Carlson pre-blamed Obama’s stance on immigration for any terrorist attack.
CARLSON: How frustrated is the FBI and other law enforcement by the fact that the federal government continues to resettle refugees from countries where Islamic extremism is rife, is the norm, into the United States? And so you’re seeing sympathy for ISIS in these immigrant communities and law enforcement has to deal with it. Does that upset them at all?
Surprise! Coulson said, “I think it does.”
Watch it above, from the July 2 Hannity.
Crossposted at News Hounds.
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