New Jersey Governor Chris Christie criticized president Obama for denying reality on Islamic State terrorists, calling his recent actions “naive” and “gravely dangerous.”
“This is a cult of evil … and we can never allow this cult of evil ever to take hold in our country and we can never be willing to allow it to live among us,” he said during a speech at the Council of Foreign Relations in Washington D.C. today.
Christie reminded the that Obama said that ISIS were merely “killers who are good at social media” and criticized Secretary of State John Kerry for saying they were “not 10 feet tall.”
“This is eerily reminiscent of the President’s characterization of them as the J.V. not quite long ago,” he said, calling the weak statements from the Obama administration “a transparent attempt to justify a failed policy” on terrorism.
Christie also criticized Obama for failing to listen and understand the fears of the American people, choosing instead to lecture them for being afraid. He warned all political leaders in Washington D.C. against appearing deaf to the concerns from people who elected them. Christie explained that when people were ignored they either stop talking altogether and go away or yell even louder.
“If we don’t respond to this dynamic, our way of life will be buried by it,” he said. “We need to listen and lead.”
The governor also criticized Obama for his obsession with getting Vladimir Putin to join his coalition of nations to fight ISIS in Iraq and Syria.
“I don’t believe President Putin has any real interest in combating ISIS,” he said, asserting that his reason for being in Syria was only to prop up Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad.
He appeared surprised that Hillary Clinton refused to describe the threat posed by ISIS as “radical Islamic terrorism” because she appeared concerned about offending Muslims around the world.
“I think it’s clarifying,” Christie said about the phrase. “See, if you say that your going to war with radical Islamic terrorism, then by definition you’re not going to war with the rest of Islam.”
But most of all, Christie appeared frustrated by the Obama administration’s unwillingness to lead a global fight against terrorism and the president’s reluctance to identify and root out ISIS. The president, he explained, appeared more concerned about being politically correct than defending the country and warned about the consequences if America was attacked.
“If something does happen, where American lives are lost, the American people both will and should be relentlessly unforgiving of those who are responsible for having done the politically correct thing and not listen to the people who knew more than they did,” he said.
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