Friday on CNN’s “The Situation Room,” Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) discussed President Donald Trump tweeting in response to the terror attack on a mosque in Egypt that killed at least 235 people.
Jackson Lee said, “I’m disappointed that the president of the United States could not behave like a commander-in-chief and a president that would offer the president of Egypt and the people of Egypt—which I would want to do right now—my deepest sympathy and prayers for them and a recognition of the fight and the territory which they’re in and to stand alongside of them in the fight against terrorism and ISIS.”
She continued, “Here is a president that cannot singularly offer a statement that really represents the American people all over the nation, singularly focusing on the Egyptian people. This was a dastardly vicious act. Not only did they bomb the mosque, but they shot people fleeing for their lives and shot the ambulances. I’m horrified by this sickness with ISIS. What should have been said is, we recognize as ISIS begins to lose its position of power in Syria and Iraq, they are headed toward Africa. That is what happened in Niger. It’s happening around Niger and Chad. And to be able to say that we will stand with the Egyptian people to stand against the acts of ISIS and ISIL, and terrorism has no place in the world. That’s the kind of statement that should have been made. It is absurd and really embarrassing.”
She added, “As a member of the Homeland Security Committee we know this. All the time we’re in classified meetings about this. But it is embarrassing not to acknowledge the pain of a particular nation. And to associate the ban here that’s been ruled unconstitutional, but also the wall. As a Homeland Security member of the committee, I want a safe and secure nation in the northern and southern border, but there are many ways to look at it—new technology, training of our border patrol, and enhancing those numbers. But to mix that with the desperate act that has happened and the loss of life in Egypt, I think is apples and oranges. My sympathies again to the Egyptian people.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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