GQ writer Julia Ioffe quickly apologized Monday after claiming President Trump had radicalized more people than ISIS on CNN’s The Lead with Jake Tapper.
“I think, you know, this president, one of the things that he really launched his presidential run on is talking about Islamic radicalization, and this president has radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did,” Julia Ioffe said.
“That’s just…it’s unconscionable for you to say that,” CNN’s David Urban shot back.
“The way he talks–the way that he allows these…the way he winks and nods to these groups. The way he says, ‘I know I’m not supposed to say it, but I’m a nationalist.’ The way that he hems and haws, when he has to condemn these people, and kind of, gritting his teeth, kind of, says, fine, okay, ‘I condemn this.'”
“For you not to push back on that, is irresponsible,” Urban said to Jake Tapper. “That’s irresponsible. For her to say that the President of the United States has radicalized more people than ISIS is irresponsible.”
Urban continued to push Ioffe on what she based her claim on.
She responded, “ISIS had, like 10,000 members. I think the president has far more supporters who espouse an equally hateful ideology.”
Tapper, as panelist David Urban pointed out on air, did not push back on Ioffe’s assertion whatsoever.
He defended himself on Twitter from critics.
As i explained live on air, I went right to @monacharenEPPC and @DavidJUrban to debate her, and they were eager to do so. It’s a panel not an interview.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 29, 2018
I immediately went to @monacharenEPPC and @DavidJUrban to rebut it and later in the snow @juliaioffe apologized and took it back.
— Jake Tapper (@jaketapper) October 29, 2018
Ioffe apologized on air later in the show. “I do want to clarify. I think I spoke in the heat of the moment–this has been a very emotional, and personally painful time for me. I think I exaggerated and I apologize for that,” she said.
However, she also said, “It’s not a coincidence that according to the ADL, the number of anti-Semitic attacks has jumped by nearly 60 percent in the first year that Donald Trump was in office.”
“And it’s no coincidence, because even though the main danger is home-grown, right-wing extremists, as many have studies have pointed out, this administration has methodically shifted resources away from monitoring those people, away from trying to control those people and keep them from committing violence.”
“But I do apologize for that heated rhetoric…let’s just say–not factual,” she added.
Ioffe also apologized in a tweet reading, “I clarified and apologized on air, but I’ll say it again here. This has been a very emotional and painful time, but I absolutely should not have gone with such hyperbole on the air. I apologize.”
I will add, though, that it is not a coincidence that the number of anti-Semitic attacks has jumped nearly 60% in 2017—the biggest one-year increase in recent history—while this administration has systematically pulled back resources from countering domestic extremism.
— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 29, 2018
“I will add, though, that it is not a coincidence that the number of anti-Semitic attacks has jumped nearly 60% in 2017—the biggest one-year increase in recent history—while this administration has systematically pulled back resources from countering domestic extremism,” she also said.
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