GQ magazine correspondent Julia Ioffe claimed President Donald Trump has radicalized more people than ISIS during her appearance on a panel on CNN’s “The Lead With Jake Tapper” Monday afternoon.
Ioffe was joined by David Urban, Symone Sanders and Mona Charen on the panel.
WATCH:
“I have to agree with Symone here. I think 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. I mean, the way he talks, the way he — the way he –” Ioffe stated.
“That’s just — it’s unconscionable for you to say that,” Urban interrupted.
Ioffe resumed, “The way that 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, gritting his teeth says, says fine, OK, I condemn this.”
“Hold on. For you not to push back on that — for her to say, the president of the United States has radicalized more people than ISIS is irresponsible,” Urban responded, directing his comments at Tapper.
Tapper then said, “OK, you disagree,” and asked Charen’s perspective.
Urban followed up, “How many camps have you gone to and interrogated ISIS folks? Do you know? What do you base it upon?”
“ISIS had like 10,000 members. I think the president has far more supporters who espouse an equally hateful ideology,” she responded.
Ioffe later walked back the comments, saying, “I think I spoke in the heat of the moment.” She added, “This has been a very emotional and personally painful time for me. I think I exaggerated and I apologize for that.”
After facing criticism from many people including Republican National Committee’s Steve Guest, Tapper tweeted, “As [I] explained live on air, I went right to @monacharenEPPC and @DavidJUrban to debate her, and they were eager to do so. It’s a panel not an interview.”
For reference, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said back in 2014 that there were 30,000 ISIS fighters in Iraq and 50,000 in Syria.
On Saturday, after a man gunned down eleven people at a Pittsburgh synagogue, Ioffe blamed the president for it.
Back in 2016, she was fired from Politico after suggesting that Trump was having sexual intercourse with Ivanka Trump. Ioffe tweeted, “Either Trump is f**king his daughter or he’s shirking nepotism laws. Which is worse?”
She then apologized, “I take back what I said about Ivanka and just let her father, our president, speak for me.”