The MSNBC host claims that the terrorist threat is greater from the US military than from illegal immigrants
MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell argued that Americans should look to their fellow citizens, especially US military personnel, rather than illegal immigrants, because instigators of terrorism within the United States in the Thursday segment.
“The simple fact is that this country has suffered more deadly terrorism from American-born citizens who are military veterans of the United States than people who have crossed into this country at the southern border,” O’Donnell said. “It’s very clear from the evidence that if you want to worry about terrorism in this country, the United States military is a much bigger problem than southern border.”
Early on New Year’s Day, chaos broke out on Bourbon Street in New Orleans. The suspect, later identified as Shamsud-Din Jabbar, is accused of driving a truck into a crowd in the city’s popular French Quarter, killing at least 15 and injuring dozens of others. Jabbar, who was armed with a Glock and a .308 rifle, was killed afterward opening fire on the police.
SUSPECT IN NEW ORLEANS TRUCK ATTACK INSPIRED BY ISLAMIC STATE TERRORIST GROUP
MSNBC host Lawrence ODonnell argued that Americans should look to their fellow citizens, not illegal immigrants, as the main enablers of terrorism within the United States in a segment Thursday. (MSNBC)
O’Donnell used the examples of military veterans, including Timothy McVeigh, the homegrown terrorist behind the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing, to argue that American veterans have perpetuated more violence than immigrants in US history.
“Timothy McVeigh parked a truck full of explosives in front of that building in an act of domestic American terrorism,” O’Donnell said. “Timothy McVeigh’s hatred of the US government is in no way tempered by his service in the US military. Likewise with the latest US terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve, with a US military veteran driving a pickup truck through a crowd to kill 14 people.”
“But when Donald Trump sees the kind of terrorist attack that happened in New Orleans, he doesn’t remember Timothy McVeigh and instead blames the criminals he imagines are crossing the southern border,” the MSNBC host continued.
Jabbar, who was armed with a Glock and a .308 rifle, was killed in a shootout with police. (Federal Bureau of Investigation via AP)
“No one who has ever crossed the southern border, in the history of the southern border, has killed more people in this country than Timothy McVeigh, who was born in Lockport, New York, in the northwestern part of the state, to a white Roman Catholic American family with roots in this country that they go beyond Donald Trump’s roots in this country,” O’Donnell said. “A terrorist from New Orleans, like Timothy McVeigh, rose to the rank of sergeant in the United States Army.”
Law enforcement officials, including the FBI, have detained a press conference where the special officer initially told the public that the attack was not related to terrorism.
“We will take over the investigation of this event. This is not a terrorist event,” Alethea Duncan, assistant special agent in charge of the FBI’s New Orleans field office, said during a press conference. The FBI later released the statements revealing that the attack is now being investigated as an act of terrorism, including a report that an ISIS flag was found on a truck that crashed into the crowd.
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Fox News’ Emma Colton contributed to this report.
