Obama Hits GOPers For Insulting Muslims: ‘That Doesn’t Make Us Safer’

President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, Jan. 12, 2016. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, Pool)
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President Barack Obama took a thinly veiled jab at the GOP presidential field Tuesday when he said that when politicians sling insults at Muslims, it’s not “telling it like it is” or making the country safer — it’s “just wrong.”

Obama made the comment during his final State of the Union address. He said that the world respects the United States for its diversity and tolerance of every faith.

“That’s why we need to reject any politics that targets people because of race or religion. This isn’t a matter of political correctness,” Obama said. “It’s a matter of understanding what makes us strong.”

He went on to quote the speech Pope Francis gave to Congress when he visited last year before telegraphing Republican presidential candidates who’ve made disparaging comments about Muslims in the United States without singling out anyone by name.

“When politicians insult Muslims, when a mosque is vandalized, or a kid bullied, that doesn’t make us safer. That’s not telling it like it is,” Obama said, referencing GOP presidential hopeful and New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s campaign slogan.

“It’s just wrong,” Obama continued. “It diminishes us in the eyes of the world. It makes it harder to achieve our goals. And it betrays who we are as a country.”

This post has been updated.

Notable Replies

  1. Probably his best SOTU, and he has had some great ones. Brilliant. Too bad we can’t repeal that Amendment about only getting two terms.

  2. Avatar for hychka hychka says:

    Nikki’s response might be good…others can decide…her lack of eye contact with me in the camera demonstrates how “out of touch” she and GOP leaders are. She was terrible compared to the Obama’s historic speech.

  3. Avatar for hychka hychka says:

    Agreed.

  4. Avatar for mymy mymy says:

    He did a great of dispelling the horrendous negative fog that the GOP (not to mention the NYT) has tried to cast over him. Imagine the NYT having its ‘experts’ decide whether Obama was just a disappointment or a disaster!! The man has already made the whole world a better place.

    I’m sure the Americans watching him had no idea about the number of jobs created under him, the rollback in carbon pollution, the strengthening of the auto and green energy industries–and the cutting of the deficit. Haley is out there lying like a rug about the ACA 'raising premiums and cutting doctor choices."

    Great president!

  5. Avatar for denisj denisj says:

    Yet NPR and CBS (didn’t see NBC) panned his speech and attacked his motivation, claiming the speech was a nonstop attack on the republicans, as understand them.

    Let me correct that… I was referring to public tv not radio

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