Politics

Rep. Schakowsky: Young people felt like America was ‘kind of a loser’ until after OBL ‘murder’

Jeff Poor Media Reporter
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There’s no question that the U.S. raid in Pakistan to take out Osama bin Laden was an important event for the lives of many Americans, but how much of a game changer was it?

It was huge, according to Illinois Democratic Rep. Jan Schakowsky, who said the bin Laden operation helped change some Americans’ perception of their country. On Wednesday’s “Hardball” on MSNBC, Schakowsky made her case.

“I agree with you,” Schakowsky said. “I think that that was seminal event in their lives, you know? This is the big deal for them growing up. And so I think that there is just a feeling now, not just with young people but getting over this feeling that maybe America’s kind of a loser. And now that we’re a winner, I think it’s very important.”

She also explained why she agreed with President Barack Obama’s decision not release the Osama bin Laden post-mortem photos, suggesting that doing so would be bragging about a kind of “murder.”

“I can’t imagine — what service would it be to the public to provide those kinds of photos,” Schakowsky said. “[T]hat kind of chest-thumping and you know, being — bragging about this kind of murder, no I think the president has handled it just right and most people absolutely believe that he is dead and certainly, those who don’t are not going to be convinced. They’re going to say, ‘Oh, it is Photoshopped or whatever. And for anyone to say that this is a good idea to send those around, don’t they understand the kind of incendiary effect that it would have?”

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