Lawrence O’Donnell lauded the United Kingdom’s 40-year battle against the Irish Republican Army as behavior America should emulate in trying to combat radical Islamic terrorism.
Lawrence O’Donnell attends the Hill and Extra’s 2016 White House Correspondents’ Association Dinner Weekend Party (Getty Images)
“No one in London knew how long London was going to be the target of everyday bombings, but everyone knew in London, including the peaceful law-abiding Irish who lived there knew that they had endured worse and would survive this,” the “Last Word” host stated. “People in England behaved like responsible adults in the face of every day terror attacks. They changed nothing about their lives.
“There was no mass surrender to terrorists there, meaning there was no mass terror,” he continued. “The English, true to form, kept calm and carried on.”
O’Donnell then turned his ire on American voters.
Donald Trump speaks during a campaign rally at the Germain Arena on September 19, 2016 in Estero, Florida. (Getty Images)
“Terrorism works by terrifying people people. That is its operative definition. Most Americans, actually, are not terrified by terrorism in the United States because most of us carry on the in the way Londoners did.”
“Donald Trump is terrified by terrorism, and most Trump supporters seem to be terrified by terrorism… and in their terror, they do something new for Americans,” he claimed.
“They attack their own government and their own government officials in their reaction to terrorism, something Democrats never did to George W. Bush even after the greatest terrorist acts in American history occurred on his watch.”