Earnest Knocks GOP For Attacking Obama With Radical Islam ‘Talking Point’

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White House press secretary Josh Earnest took Republicans to task Tuesday for blocking gun control measures while pushing attack “talking points” about President Barack Obama’s rhetoric on terrorism.

“Using the term ‘radical Islamic extremism’ is not a counterterrorism strategy. It is a political talking point,” Earnest said in an interview on CNN.

He also said Republicans in the Senate who have criticized Obama for not naming “radical Islam” as the enemy “have that luxury,” while the President, who’s focused on putting forward counterterrorism policy plans, does not.

In an address last week, Obama slammed GOP lawmakers’ fixation on the term as a “political distraction,” saying that “calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away.”

Presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton echoed the sentiment. She said, “it matters what we do, not what we say” and said “radical jihadism” and “radical Islamism…mean the same thing.”

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Notable Replies

  1. HE won’t cALL IT radical ISLAm and HE WANts TO TAke aWAY their GUNs. UNAmericaN x2. GO back TO KENYa OHBUmmer Hussein so YOU caN NOT Eat PORk WITH the RESt of YOUR RADicaL ISLAM TERRor PEOPle!!11!!1!one!11!11!1!!!

  2. Josh Earnest: Smart, witty and good-looking. The trifecta.

  3. The Republicans are now handling all of ISIL’s PR along with Trump fundraising…

  4. What I wish Earnest had said:

    Let’s see … you have to use the right words, like “Radical Islamic Terrorism”, to talk about something or overly-sensitive people are outraged and offended.

    That’s Political Correctness in a nutshell, isn’t it?

  5. Nope.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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