President Obama on Tuesday rejected his Republican critics who say he’s afraid to call terrorists “radical Islamists,” and said using that term wouldn’t change anything.
Do Republicans think, “We can’t beat terrorists unless we call them radical Islamists?” Obama asked Tuesday after meeting with his national security team at the Treasury Department to discuss the anti-ISIS campaign.
“What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change?” he said. “Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is, none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away.”
“This is a political distraction,” Obama said. “It’s a political talking point, it’s not a strategy.”
His remarks are likely to rile up Republicans, who have said Obama’s failure to recognize the threat has led to policies that aren’t containing it.
But Obama mocked leading Republicans, such as presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump, for implying it makes a difference.
Not one adviser has ever approached him and said, “‘man, if you use that phrase we can really turn this thing around,'” Obama said. “Not once.”
Obama added that not identifying Islam “has nothing to do with political correctness and everything to do with defeating extremism.”
“There’s not been a moment in my seven and a half years as president where we have not been able to pursue a strategy because we didn’t use the label radical Islam,” he said.
“Anyone who thinks we’re confused about who are enemies are would surprise the thousands of terrorists we’ve taken off the battlefield” with that notion, Obama said before taking a shot at Trump and pundits.
“Politicians who tweet and appear on cable news shows” accusing Obama of not doing enough to fight groups such as the self-proclaimed Islamic State are doing the nation a disservice, Obama said.
“That kind of yapping,” and the mindset that says scoring political points is the main objective, is dangerous, Obama said.
“We have a proposal from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to bar all Muslims from immigrating to America,” Obama said. Such talk and proposals does the terrorists’ job for them, he said.
Obama also renewed his call for Congress to reinstate the lapsed federal ban on assault rifles.
“There is a meaningful way” to stop homegrown terrorism, he said. “We have to make it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on weapons of war.”
“Enough talking about being tough on terrorism; actually be tough on terrorism and stop making it easy for” terrorists to get their hands on weapons that enable them to kill large numbers of people quickly and easily, Obama said.
