DNC Vice Chair Representative Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) argued that it’s “crazy” to refuse to say the phrase “Islamic extremism” on Friday’s broadcast of HBO’s “Real Time.”
Host Bill Maher said, “I’ve been trying to convince liberals, some of them, that they really need to go back to school on this issue of Islam, and what it means to be a liberal. And you I think are on the same page, you say you don’t like when it Secretary Kerry, for example, says that we should say oh, it comes from poverty or I think he said it comes from thrill seeking, Islamic extremism, and President Obama says we shouldn’t even say ‘Islamic extremism,’ we should say ‘violent extremism,’ which is just crazy, right?”
Gabbard responded, “It is crazy. They do matter, words mean things, and this is what we need to look at as we look at how do we identify our enemies so that we can defeat them? By saying that they’re looking for thrill seeking, or that economic prosperity will solve the problem. Give them a big house, give them a skateboard, send them on their way. You think that’s going to solve the problem? It’s not.”
She added that refusing to condemn Islamic extremism as it is “gets in the way of us being able to accomplish our mission and defeat those who are threatening us. And it goes to…the problem of not really recognizing hey, there actually are things that are right and wrong, and these honor killings, and these other things, they are clearly and absolutely wrong.”
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