Says Acts of Terror by Islamic Extremists Are ‘Different’
Republican Rep. Sean Duffy says acts of terror committed by Islamic extremists are “different” than those committed by white, presumably Christian extremists, and praised “the good things” that came out of the hate crime mass shooting at a Charleston church by a white supremacist.
Speaking with CNN Tuesday morning, CNN’s Alisyn Camerota asked the Wisconsin Congressman why President Trump has not publicly spoken about last week’s attack on a mosque in Quebec that left six Muslim people dead and eight injured. A French-Canadian university student who supported Trump opened fire while about 50 Muslims were praying, yet the president has not said a word in public.
Duffy, a four-tern congressman and former reality TV show like the man he supported for president, responded, “I don’t know,” but insisted “there is a difference. Death and murder on both sides is wrong,” he said, adding there are no non-Muslim groups like ISIS or al Qaeda inspiring terror attacks.
“You don’t think there are white extremists?” Camerota pushed back. “You don’t remember Oklahoma City? You don’t think that this guy who was involved in the mosque shooting said that he was inspired by things he read online?”
Duffy could only respond, “You’ve given me two examples,” and said “there is radicals all over the world and here in America.” He went on to suggest that there were no other examples besides the Quebec mosque shooting and the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing of a federal office building by Timothy McVeigh.
“That’s different than this whole movement that’s taken place through ISIS,” Duffy again insisted.
When Camerota reminded him about the attack in a Charleston historically Black church that left nine members of a bible study group dead, and asked him if that “doesn’t matter,” stunningly, Duffy responded:
“That does matter. Look at the good things that came from it.”
He mentioned that “Nikki Haley took down the confederate flag – that was great!”
Duffy continued to try to make his argument.
“Look at Gabby Giffords,” he said, of the now-former Congresswoman who was shot in the head by an anti-government extremist. “The Marxist who took her life, a leftist guy, and now you see violence and terror in the streets all across America. Burning and beating people with Donald Trump hats.”
For the record, Jared Lee Loughner was neither a “leftist” or a right wing extremist. He was a conspiracy theorist, and an independent who had a long-term hatred of Giffords and believed women should not hold office. And Rep. Giffords fortunately did not have her life taken; she survived the massacre.
Camerota accused Duffy of saying that “when it’s a white terrorist, it’s an isolated incident.”
The Wisconsin congressman then asked if America could have vetted the Charleston church shooter, wouldn’t we have done it. And the answer is of course he should have been vetted better, which likely would have required more money being spent on gun background check purchases. The FBI admits the shooter should not have been allowed to purchase the gun he used to commit the atrocity, but they made a mistake in approving the check.
On Twitter, many were furious. A sampling:
UPDATE:
Slate’s Ben Mathis-Lilley compiled “a list of fatal white extremist attacks that have taken place in the United States since the Oklahoma City bombing. He lists 40 between 1995 and 2015.