Alabama’s senior and junior senators took Attorney General Loretta Lynch to task this week for saying her “greatest fear” following the San Bernardino Islamic terrorist attacks is of anti-Muslim backlash.
“As you lead the law enforcement efforts for this President and our country, we demand that you put the safety and needs of our country first, and leave the politically correct efforts of interest groups to the advocacy and campaigns of those outside of our government,” Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) and Jeff Sessions (R-Al) wrote in a letter to Lynch Wednesday.
“It is long past time that you and President Obama focus on the real threat facing our great nation: radical Islamic terrorism – not law-abiding Americans,” they added.
Last week, two radical Islamic terrorists gunned down 14 people in San Bernardino. Following the attacks, Lynch spoke at the Muslim Advocates dinner, saying her “greatest fear” is that anti-Muslim feelings and fears will lead to violence against Muslims.
In their letter, released Thursday, Sessions and Shelby argue that the approach Lynch and President Obama has taken to national and homeland security is “dangerous.”
“As our country faces a growing threat both inside and beyond our national borders, families in Alabama and across this country are looking for strong leadership and a commitment to keep our citizens safe from terrorists and the violence they wish to inflict,” they wrote.
“Over the past few weeks, the President, you, and other government officials have taken actions and made statements that suggest to us that the Department and the Administration are focused on efforts that are not up to the challenge that ISIS and the Islamic terrorists pose,” they added.
The Alabama lawmakers highlighted Lynch’s comments saying they “warrant outrage.”
“We strongly disagree with your response to the unthinkable murder of innocent Americans,” they wrote. “Our greatest fear after the heinous acts of Syed Rizwan Farook and Tashfeen Malik is that other Islamic terrorists will see an opportunity to enter our country and kill Americans – and that this Administration is doing nothing to stop it.”
Shelby and Sessions argued further that Obama’s proposals in response to the attack would not improve safety or have prevented the attack from taking place.
“For the President to then suggest that our response to these murders should be to limit our Second Amendment rights is both ridiculous and irrelevant to the shootings,” they wrote. “Neither Mr. Farook nor Ms. Malik’s actions would have been stopped by the policies that the President has suggested.”
“Instead, we believe that President Obama is once again using a tragedy to push liberal gun control policies that would not even address the crime we witnessed – and make Americans less safe by restricting the lawful exercise of their Second Amendment right,” they added.
Shelby and Sessions concluded by calling for a response that details Lynch’s “efforts to keep our country and communities safe from terrorists.”