Fox News’ Megyn Kelly pressed New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie during Thursday evening’s debate about racial profiling and the San Bernardino shooting, asking if spotting Muslims should be deemed suspicious enough to call the police.
In a question directed to Christie, Kelly said the neighbors of the San Bernardino gunmen didn’t report the couple to law enforcement “because they were afraid they would be accused of racial profiling.”
“Now you have said we should not profile. How do you square that with the San Bernardino case?” Kelly asked.
Christie answered, “you can do it without profiling, Megyn. You do it on the facts. What those folks knew was that these folks had weapons, they knew that they were talking about trying to take our country and attack it. That’s not profiling, that’s law enforcement.”
“They didn’t know they were going to attack the country,” Kelly responded.
Christie tried to clarify: “They knew they were talking about the issues of attacking people, Megyn. They knew that.”
But Kelly pressed on, saying the neighbors “saw men going in and out of the garage.”
“They saw packages being delivered. They saw Muslims, and they did not think that was enough to call the cops. Do you?” she asked.
Christie responded that people should use common sense, and allow law enforcement to make decisions about what warrants further investigation.
Watch Kelly’s final response, via NBC’s Ronan Farrow:
Today in casual bigotry. https://t.co/WrFhhzoOkU
— Ronan Farrow (@RonanFarrow) January 29, 2016
