CNN is no stranger to broadcasting absurd claims — just take the network’s assertion that the recent mail bomb incident is comparable to 9/11 or the Oklahoma City Bombings. But this week the liberal outlet dropped to a new low when GQ columnist Julia Ioffe claimed that President Donald Trump has radicalized more people “than ISIS ever did.”
Admitting perhaps she had gone too far, Ioffe has since apologized for the remark, albeit with questionable sincerity. Not surprisingly, her rhetoric did not appear to bother those at CNN, with or without the apology.
Outrageous
Ioffe made the hyperbolic comparison on Monday during an appearance 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,” Ioffe said.
“That’s just . . . it’s unconscionable for you to say that,” retorted political commentator David Urban, who worked on Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign. But Ioffe wasn’t going to back down that easily. She continued:
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.’
Urban, once again, tried to get Ioffe to take a step back. “For you not to push back on that, is irresponsible,” said Urban to Tapper, “That’s irresponsible. For her to say that the President of the United States has radicalized more people than ISIS is irresponsible.”
But Tapper refused to get involved. “ISIS had, like 10,000 members,” continued Ioffe. “I think the president has far more supporters who espouse an equally hateful ideology.”
Apology
Later on in the program, Ioffe attempted to back-pedal. “I do want to clarify,” she said. “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.”
As for whether Ioffe was sincere, you be the judge. “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,” she continued, adding:
And it’s no coincidence because even though the main danger is home-grown, right-wing extremists, as many 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 concluded.
Where’s the backlash?
Afterward, Ioffe apologized again in a series of tweets, saying, “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.”
But, once again, she went on to blame the Trump administration for the rise in anti-Semitic attacks:
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
And yet, for this qualified “apology,” Ioffe has been let off the hook.
She got off easy for the sort of rhetoric that, if made by a Republican, surely would have cost them their job. And the left’s double standard continues . . .
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