President Obama has assured Americans repeatedly that he has the Islamic State under control, but even MSNBC’s talking heads don’t seem to believe that.
“He’s been out of the country for 10 days, and certainly out of the loop in terms of the daily conversation here in this country,” MSNBC contributor Mike Barnicle said during a panel discussion on “Morning Joe” Monday, referring to the president’s somewhat blasé response to the Parisian terror wave.
Obama’s reported aloofness following the attack in the French capital, Barnicle added, is leaving Americans feeling that the United States is “leaderless.” The MSNBC contributor also questioned the wisdom of the president’s decision to go aboard for 10 days, putting him away from the U.S. public response to the Paris attack.
And like MSNBC’s Chris Matthews, the “Morning Joe” panel also questioned Obama’s decision to focus so much of his public response to the attack on badmouthing his Republican critics.
“There’s a very thin line between anxiety and fear, and the country, I think, is filled with anxiety that is now crossing over into fear,” Barnicle said. “I think a lot of people feel we’re leaderless in terms of confronting the global war on terror.”
“I think a lot of people want to hear from Barack Obama,” he said, adding that Obama’s claiming in the past that ISIS has been “contained” and that the insurgent group is the “JV” of terrorist organizations has not left Americans feeling confident in his abilities.
In response to the Paris attack, objections from Congress and voters to taking in more Syrian refugees, Obama has said publicly that fears of ISIS spreading throughout the world are unfounded and that there is no reason to oppose the plan to resettling Middle Eastern refugees.
But many Americans are unsettled after ISIS said it was targeting America next, and Barnicle wasn’t alone in his unflattering comments for the president. “Morning Joe” host Joe Scarborough joined him in suggesting the White House has acted horribly in dealing with the rise of ISIS.
Scarborough also said he believes Obama’s effort to downplay ISIS has influenced some of the intelligence reports that also downplayed the threat.
“I think we have that backwards … It’s not that the reports have swayed the Obama administration; it’s the Obama administration’s preconceived notions and their narrative about ISIS being a ‘JV team’ that actually swayed the intelligence support,” Scarborough said Monday. He was referring to a recent New York Times report suggesting U.S. intelligence may have been altered in such a way as to give Obama rosier picture of the reality of ISIS, thereby giving the president and his team an inaccurate depiction of what has been happening in the Middle East.
The Times’ Michael Schmidt, who co-authored the report alleging intel reports were altered, chimed in Monday, “Things were made to look rosier.”
“You’re saying analysts tried to warn higher-ups of problems in Iraq and Syria and those concerns were deleted from the reports?” Scarborough pressed.
“They’re saying they were ‘made rosier’,” Schmidt repeated.
