Obama slams Trump for singling out Muslims
President Barack Obama lacerated Donald Trump for his calls to single out Muslims and Islam for special scrutiny.
Obama, speaking after a briefing with top administration officials on U.S. actions against the Islamic State terrorist group, scoffed at accusations this week from the presumptive Republican nominee that using the term “radical Islam” was a sign of strength.
“There has not been a moment in my 71/2 years as president where we have not been able to pursue a strategy because we didn’t use the label ‘radical Islam,’ ” Obama said.
“Not once has an adviser of mine said, ‘Man, if we really use that phrase, we’re going to turn this whole thing around,’ ” Obama said in a 25-minute, sarcasm-laced jeremiad against Trump in which he never mentioned the nominee by name. “Not once. So if someone seriously thinks that we don’t know who we’re fighting, if there’s anyone out there who thinks we’re confused about who our enemies are, that would come as a surprise to the thousands of terrorists who we’ve taken off the battlefield.”
Trump spoke in multiple forums on June 13, the day after a gunman who pledged allegiance to Islamic State carried out the worst shooting massacre in U.S. history at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
Obama’s attack on Trump was his most direct engagement thus far with the 2016 campaign. The president will soon start campaigning for the presumptive Democratic nominee, his former secretary of state, Hillary Clinton.
This level of involvement by second-term presidents in a campaign is unprecedented, and Obama’s attack reflected the stakes he sees in keeping Trump out of the White House.
Obama said Trump’s prescriptions would make enemies of moderate Muslims and put American freedoms at risk.
“If we fall into the trap of painting all Muslims with a broad brush and imply that we are at war with an entire religion, then we’re doing the terrorists’ work for them,” the president said, explaining why he does not use the term “radical Islam.”
He singled out Trump’s claims that Muslims as a group resisted reporting terrorists in their midst and his call to stop the entry of Muslims to the United States.
“We now have proposals from the presumptive Republican nominee for the president of the United States to bar all Muslims from immigrating to America,” Obama said. “We hear language that singles out immigrants and suggests that entire religious communities are complicit in violence.
“Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating against them because of their faith? Do Republican officials actually agree with this? Because that’s not the America we want.” — jta
AIPAC ‘disappointed’ in Obama’s opposition to missile funding increase
The American Israel Public Affairs Committee said it was “deeply disappointed” in the Obama administration’s opposition to increased missile defense funding for Israel, weighing in on an issue apparently obstructing U.S.-Israel talks on renewing defense assistance.
“We are deeply disappointed that a June 14 ‘Statement of Administration Policy’ on the defense appropriations measure has criticized Congress for funding U.S.-Israel missile defense cooperation,” the lobbying group said.
Missile defense is at the center of disagreements between Israel and the United States in talks aimed at extending the overall defense assistance package. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu appeared newly amenable on June 15 to Obama administration demands that missile defense cooperation be wrapped into the package.
The Obama administration included in its criticism of the increase in funding for missile defense cooperation a statement of policy opposing the House of Representatives’ version of a defense spending bill. Among a litany of objections in its six pages, the administration statement opposes adding $455 million to the $145 million the administration has already budgeted toward missile defense.
The administration issued a statement suggesting it may hope to leverage missile defense cooperation with Israel in order to restore funding for the U.S. programs.
Administrations, both Republican and Democratic, have traditionally lowballed funding for missile defense cooperation with Israel, which is considered separately from the defense assistance budget, currently about $3 billion a year. Congress then adds funds to the programs, which allows lawmakers to accrue chits with the pro-Israel community. An administration explicitly opposing the increase in its statement of policy, however, seems unprecedented.
The Obama administration statement threatened a veto if the House version of the bill came to the president’s desk unaltered.
Another factor in the contretemps could be the talks underway now with Israel to extend the Memorandum of Understanding guaranteeing Israel defense assistance. The Americans and the Israelis want to increase the annual level of assistance from $3 billion to nearly $5 billion, but the administration wants to wrap into that the missile defense cooperation funding, while Israel wants to keep it separate.
Netanyahu has come under pressure in Israel recently to conclude a deal before Obama leaves office. Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, has said she is committed to the defense package for Israel, but Donald Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, has suggested that Israel should pay for it U.S. assistance. — jta