Joni Ernst: Let Baghdadi’s Elimination Be a Warning to America’s Enemies

The killing of ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi is a “reminder” that terrorists “will meet a violent end,” said Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) in a Tuesday interview on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Daily with host Alex Marlow.

“It was very successful,” said Ernst of the mission to eliminate Islamic terrorist al-Baghdadi. “Our U.S. special operations forces are absolutely the best in the world, and kudos to them. They are given a task, and they will not let us down. We know that for certain, and we saw that in this instance with the death of al-Baghdadi.”

LISTEN:

Ernst continued, “Under the direction of President Trump, the mission was carried out successfully. They took out the head of ISIS, but what we need to keep in mind is that there are others that will be stepping up to take al-Baghdadi’s place. We’ve already seen that. We’ll continue to eliminate those leaders as we can, but it is vital that we continue to keep ISIS down. We cannot let them regroup. We cannot let them build another caliphate.”

“We saw this when we left Iraq … during the Obama administration,” added Ernst. “We saw the birth and development of ISIS and it really spurred me into Congress. I couldn’t believe that we had held territory and gave it up to such a violent extremist group. We certainly don’t want to see that again.”

Ernst described the killing of al-Baghdadi as dissuasive toward Islamic terrorist recruitment.

“This mission was an important reminder and a much needed step toward ensuring the enduring defeat of ISIS,” Ernst determined. “We have got to continue down that path, and we’ve got to let this serve as a reminder to other terrorist groups of what they can expect if they plan to group and build and organize like ISIS.”

Ernst stated, “This will hopefully slow down their recruiting, letting them know that they will come and meet a violent end if they join this organization. We will persevere. The United States will persevere. So let that be a warning, the death of al-Baghdadi, let that be a warning to anyone that comes forward and supports these terrorist groups, these extremist groups, it will be the end. So I think we have a very good start here. We have destroyed the physical caliphate, but we have to continue picking off these individual leaders.”

Breitbart News Tonight broadcasts live on SiriusXM Patriot channel 125 weeknights from 9:00 p.m. to midnight Eastern or 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Pacific.

Follow Robert Kraychik on Twitter @rkraychik.