One Republican congressman differentiated between white terrorists and “radical Islamic terrorists” on Tuesday, saying “there’s a difference” between attacks by the groups.
“There’s a difference,” Rep. Sean Duffy (R-WI) told CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, when she asked him why Trump hadn’t condemned the white supremacist who killed six Muslim congregants during prayer at a Canadian mosque on Jan. 29.
“Again, death and murder on both sides is wrong, but if you want to take the dozens of scenarios where ISIS-inspired attacks have taken innocents, and you give one example of what was in Canada, I’m going to condemn them all,” Duffy said. “But again, you don’t have a group like ISIS or Al Qaeda that’s inspiring people around the world to take up arms and kill innocents. That was a one-off, that was a one-off, Alisyn. And you have a movement on the other side.”
When Camerota brought up other examples of white people committing acts of terrorism—the Oklahoma City bombing and the Charleston shooting of black church-goers—Duffy was dismissive.
“Oklahoma was, what, 20 years ago?” he said. “That’s different than this whole movement that has taken place through ISIS.”
“It does matter,” he said later of the Charleston massacre. “Look at the good things that came from it. Nikki Haley took down the confederate flag, that was great!”
Neither Duffy nor Camerota made mention of a 2012 terrorist attack by a white supremacist in Duffy’s home state of Wisconsin. Wade Page opened fire in a Sikh temple in Oak Creek, Wisconsin, killing six people before he took his own life after police shot him.
Duffy went on to ask Camerota whether there was any way to prevent white supremacist attacks.
“What do we do on the white supremacy front to make sure we don’t have another attack like Charleston? I am with you on that, Alisyn,” he said.
“Speak out about it, crack down on it, and talk about it as extreme violence as much as talk about all of the other terrorism that you call radical Islamic terrorism,” Camerota replied.
“So let’s crack down on ISIS,” Duffy said. “Let’s crack down to the seven terror countries that are riddled with terrorists and give Donald Trump 90 days to 120 days, give him a pause to make sure he can keep us safe.”
Watch the exchange below, via CNN’s Eugene Scott:
Camerota: Why isn’t the president talking about white terrorism?
Duffy: There’s a difference. https://t.co/YEgSitUsdS
— Eugene Scott (@Eugene_Scott) February 7, 2017
This post has been updated.
