Capehart: Trump’s “Xenophobic” Reaction To National Guard Attack Is Going To Hurt National Security
On Friday’s “PBS NewsHour,” MS NOW host Jonathan Capehart criticized President Donald Trump’s response to the incident involving an Afghan refugee accused of killing one National Guard member and critically injuring another.
JONATHAN CAPEHART, MS NOW: Well, this is not a surprise. Anyone who’s been paying attention to President Trump would have expected this reaction. To Peter’s point, he’s been saying these things, these anti-immigrant, xenophobic things since he started his – since he entered the political arena. Go all the way back to the birther controversy with President Obama. So the idea that he now, in a second term where he feels unleashed, unfettered, is surrounded by an administration that is enabling him to do all the things he wants to do, the fact that he used a tragedy to sort of amp up what he was already trying to do, not shocking at all. When it comes to bringing 500 more National Guard troops here to Washington, for what purpose? I mean, originally, he said it’s about crime. Well, if you’re really serious about crime, I think a functioning White House, a functioning Justice Department would work with local officials from the mayor and certainly the police chiefs to talk about, how can we help you with crime? Even though, in a city like Washington and other large cities around the country, crime has been falling. And so I think what we see is that the National Guard, to Peter’s point, they have been – it’s sad when people who lose their lives are instantly used as political pawns. But the National Guard, they have been used as pawns from the very beginning, brought in under the guise of crime, and then used for other things, the National Guard here used to beautify the parks. That’s not what they’re for. And so what the president is doing is, it’s shameful, it’s xenophobic, and in the end, it is going to hurt America’s national security. This perpetrator worked with the CIA in Afghanistan with the United States. And we all know what he was doing. He was helping us, furthering our national security interests.
