State Dept. Official Tells ‘Morning Joe’ She Won’t ‘Take A Mulligan’ On ISIL (VIDEO)

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State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday that she was standing by her argument that the U.S. can’t just “kill its way out” of war with the Islamic State terror group without also tackling economic disparities in the Middle East.

Harf first made those comments Monday to Chris Matthews on MSNBC’s “Hardball.” After Fox News and conservative news websites mocked her as having argued that simply giving jobs to young men in the Middle East would prevent them from radicalizing, Harf pointed out on CNN that even former President George W. Bush had cited poverty as a contributing factor to violent extremism.

Former National Security Agency director Gen. Michael Hayden, whom Harf previously worked for as a spokesperson with the CIA, said Wednesday morning on “Morning Joe” that he thought Harf would “want to take a mulligan” for how she phrased the disputed comments on “Hardball.”

Harf herself came on the program soon after and refused to back down.

“Well, I’m not sure I would take a mulligan on this one,” Harf said. “But I think [Hayden] went on to say something I would agree with. In the short term — and I said this on ‘Hardball’ the other night — we are killing them and we will continue killing ISIS terrorists that pose a threat to us. We’re very good at that.”

“But in the longer term — and this isn’t specific to ISIL — military commanders, politicians of both parties and counterterrorism experts all agree that if you’re going to prevent terror groups from spreading to other places and getting more recruits, you have to look at root causes that lead people to extremism,” she said. “You have to do all of it. You have to take them on militarily, but you have to look at things like governance, like opportunity so these groups aren’t able to get more people to their cause.”

Watch below via MSNBC:

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Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for whiteb whiteb says:

    It’s obvious that economic opportunity (jobs) would help in an impoverished region. She is correct. This is a multidimensional problem that can’t be solved with a “military only” approach.

  2. HIRE TERROrists? ThIS doesN’t MAke sense. oNLY IN NOBaMAmerica WOULd IT maKE sense TO HIRe MUSLIM terrorists TO rePLACe FURLOughED TSA sCREENs. STOP NOBama FROM HIRING MUSLIM terrorISts TO saFEguarD the HOMElaND. PASS THE bILL that DEFUnds HOMElaND secURITY aND SHOW the LIBtards WHAT we’re MADE OF!1!!!1!!!1one!!!

  3. “State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf told MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday that she was standing by her argument that the U.S. can’t just “kill its way out” of war with the Islamic State terror group without also tackling economic disparities in the Middle East.”

    The old saying “When the only tool you have is a hammer, everything begins to look like a nail”, has been turned on it’s head by the GOP. They want only the hammer, because to them everything looks like a nail.

  4. Avatar for mantan mantan says:

    These absurd games with Tweety and the usual assortment of fair weather Beltway Masters of the Universe have become even more dangerous than Tweety’s personally forgotten old daily flirtation with Saddam’s bomb-maker.

  5. Would TPM like to take a mulligan on its policy of helping Morning Joe broadcast his stupid?

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