Appearing as a guest on Wednesday's MSNBC Live, Linda Sarsour of the Arab-American Association of New York received no pushback from host Jose Diaz-Balart over her inflammatory assertion that some of the Republican presidential candidates "think they can mass murder civilians across the world" to defeat the ISIS threat.
She also absurdly claimed that the U.S. killed 650,000 civilians in Iraq, even though most estimates place the total number of Iraqis killed by the U.S. military much lower.
As Diaz-Balart introduced the segment, he played up the idea that Republicans may not "focus on keeping" American Muslims "safe" and suggested they may be "isolated" as he showed several clips from the GOP presidential debate from Tuesday. The MSNBC host began:
But during the debate the first topic candidates went head to head about was the possibility of isolating different groups of immigrants coming to the United States, particularly when it comes to the Muslim community.
After clips of Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, and Ted Cruz, Diaz-Balart added:
But do Muslim-Americans feel like any of these candidates will focus on keeping them and their community safe?
When the MSNBC host's first question generally asked her thoughts on the debate, Sarsour immediately began complaining about the GOP candidates, calling the debate "absolutely disgraceful." Sarsour:
Just hearing again, "ban Muslims, deport the ones that are already here, the refugees that have already brought here, carpet bombing of innocent civilians," they were pushed on that multiple times by the questioners, and just it was absolutely disgraceful that these are the people that are leading the Republican party who think that they're going to be the next President of the United States.
After Diaz-Balart called it "ironic" that the candidate who delivered the most praise toward Muslims, Jeb Bush, is far behind in the polls, Sarsour moved to associate the term "mass murder" with Republicans. Sarsour:
The Republican party continues to focus on ISIS, ISIS, killing, killing, killing. Since 9/11 and the horrific attacks of 9/11, we haven't been able to kill our way out of terrorism. ISIS is an ideology, and we cannot kill an ideology with weapons and war. And this is why it really scares me to think that the future of our country, the future leadership of our country potentially can be people who think they can mass murder civilians across the world.
We killed over 650,000 Iraqis who were civilians, and we really haven't gotten anything, and we've created this vacuum for ISIS, and no one wanted to talk about the substance of our failed foreign policy.
The 650,000 number was not only contradicted in its magnitude by other high-profile counts, but even the group that claimed such high overall number of deaths attributed only a small portion to U.S. military actions.
Instead of questioning her inflammatory and inaccurate claims, the MSNBC merely pushed back mildly on whether she supports trying to negotiate with ISIS:
So, Linda, do you think that ISIS can be negotiated with? I mean, do you think that there is any negotiating with a group of people that say that it is better to die causing harm to others than to negotiate? Can you actually -- do you think that there is a negotiated settlement with people like ISIS?
Sarsour ended up declaring that ISIS would have been "rooting on [for] the Republican party" during last night's debate and seemed to recommend against using military actin to combat ISIS, suggesting that it would make matters worse:
I don't think, it's not about negotiation, it's about defeating an ideology with ideology. It's about creating partnerships and not alienating American Muslims from the process. Killing ISIS members, particularly when you're focusing on a big city like Raqqah where there are millions of civilians is the way that you're going to radicalize more people across the world, and that's the recruiting tool that ISIS wants. that debate last night, they said ISIS more than 100 times, free PR for ISIS. I'm pretty sure they were rooting on the Republican party.
Below is a complete transcript of the segment from the Wednesday, December 16, MSNBC Live with Jose Diaz-Balart:
9:17 a.m.
JOSE DIAZ-BALART: But during the debate the first topic candidates went head to head about was the possibility of isolating different groups of immigrants coming to the United States, particularly when it comes to the Muslim community.
DONALD TRUMP: We are not talking about isolation. We're talking about security. We're not talking about religion. We're talking about security. Our country is out of control.
JEB BUSH: If we want to destroy radical Islamic terrorism, we can't disassociate ourselves from peace-loving Muslims.
TED CRUZ: It's not a war on a faith, it's a war on a political and theocratic ideology that seeks to murder us.
DIAZ-BALART: But do Muslim-Americans feel like any of these candidates will focus on keeping them and their community safe? Linda Sarsour is the director of the Arab-American Association of New York. She joins me now. It's great to see you.
LINDA SARSOUR, ARAB-AMERICAN ASSOCIATION OF NEW YORK: Thank you.
DIAZ-BALART: Saw you this Sunday in New York, and it's great to see you on the show today.
SARSOUR: Thank you for having me.
DIAZ-BALART: Hey, Linda, what are your thoughts on last night's debate?
SARSOUR: I mean, especially, in the main event, just hearing again, ban Muslims, deport the ones that are already here, the refugees that have already brought here, carpet bombing of innocent civilians, they were pushed on that multiple times by the questioners, and just it was absolutely disgraceful that these are the people that are leading the Republican party who think that they're going to be the next President of the United States.
I wanted someone to ask them to define "American." What does "American" mean to the Republican candidates that were up there? And I think if I were able to ask that question, it would be very clear that they would look at someone like me and not see me as their fellow American.
DIAZ-BALART: And, Linda, but, you know, is it somewhat ironic that the one person in the main debate that did say that this should not be a war against a religion, and that the majority of Muslims are peace-loving, was Jeb Bush who is really now falling and hasn't been able to get any traction in that party?
SARSOUR: Unfortunately, yes, the, basically one of the losers and when we look at the pre-debate which was Lindsey Graham who really had the strongest message about talking about American Muslims and really standing up for what he believes in or for what we as Americans should believe in, but the issue here with me is that their words don't really align with their actions and what we've seen as their priorities in the different realms whether they are legislators or not.
The Republican party continues to focus on ISIS, ISIS, killing, killing, killing. Since 9/11 and the horrific attacks of 9/11, we haven't been able to kill our way out of terrorism. ISIS is an ideology, and we cannot kill an ideology with weapons and war. And this is why it really scares me to think that the future of our country, the future leadership of our country potentially can be people who think they can mass murder civilians across the world. We killed over 650,000 Iraqis who were civilians, and we really haven't gotten anything, and we've created this vacuum for ISIS, and no one wanted to talk about the substance of our failed foreign policy.
DIAZ-BALART: So, Linda, do you think that ISIS can be negotiated with? I mean, do you think that there is any negotiating with a group of people that say that it is better to die causing harm to others than to negotiate? Can you actually -- do you think that there is a negotiated settlement with people like ISIS?
SARSOUR: I don't think, it's not about negotiation, it's about defeating an ideology with ideology. It's about creating partnerships and not alienating American Muslims from the process. Killing ISIS members, particularly when you're focusing on a big city like Raqqah where there are millions of civilians is the way that you're going to radicalize more people across the world, and that's the recruiting tool that ISIS wants. that debate last night, they said ISIS more than 100 times, free PR for ISIS. I'm pretty sure they were rooting on the Republican party.
We have to understand that ISIS is a decentralized terrorist organization. They are not a nation state for us to be waging war on them and then killing hundreds and maybe thousands of civilians in the process. This is not the way that we're going to defeat terrorism, and definitely not isolating a whole segment of the American population, many of whom have deep roots in this nation from the founding of this nation, including our African-American Muslim sisters and brothers.
DIAZ-BALART: Linda Sarsour, it's a pleasure to see you. Thanks for being with me this morning.
