Following the terrorist attack in Paris in which 10 journalists and two police officers were murdered, Sen. Lindsey Graham proclaimed Wednesday afternoon that the U.S. is now caught up “in a religious war.”
Graham, who made the comments to conservative talk radio show host Hugh Hewitt, also laid blame at President Obama’s feet, saying that his “campaign promises are getting a lot of people killed.”
Graham made a point to Hewitt telling him that Egyptian President Abdel Fatah el-Sisi called for a reform of Islam. The conservative radio host followed up asking the senator why “our president or our leaders can’t speak truth to this situation” in the way el-Sisi did.
“I think the President of the United States is undercutting the President of Egypt,” Graham said. “We’re in a religious war.”
“These are not terrorists, these are radical Islamists who are trying to replace our way of life with their way of life. Their way of life is motivated by religious teachings that require me and you to be killed or enslaved or converted,” Graham said. “The President of the United States tiptoes around the threats we face and he is trying to diminish the religious aspect of this war. Why? I don’t know.”
“He is not engaging the enemy in an aggressive fashion, which makes it more likely that we’ll get attacked,” the South Carolina Senator said.
“What he’s doing is pretending to want to destroy ISIL, when in fact, he’s trying to get out of office without committing American ground forces to do the job as part of a team in the region because he made a campaign promise,” Graham told Hewitt.
“His campaign promises are getting a lot of people killed,” he added.