A Republican lawmaker and Air Force veteran who served in Iraq and Afghanistan criticized on Thursday President Donald Trump’s retweets of anti-Muslim videos, saying it doesn’t help the fight against terrorism.
“I think we have ISIS on its heels. We’re fighting, frankly, these forces of evil all over the world,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Illinois, told CNN’s “New Day.” “But I do think it matters if you retweet a video that’s not real or that is put out by an extremist, I guess, in the UK.”
Trump retweeted three videos Wednesday morning, showing people purported to be Muslims carrying out assaults and, in one video, smashing a statue of the Virgin Mary.
Kinzinger said there are mornings when he wakes up saying he wished the President hadn’t tweeted.
“I don’t think it helps to win at all,” he said. “I think (it’s helpful) to rally the people you can come and say, look, listen, we’re fighting a real war on terror here. But, I think, to say it’s basically all of Islam, us versus them, or to retweet this video, is definitely not helpful in the least.”
More strategically, Kinzinger noted, animosity between Muslims and Americans may be what extends the war on terror.
“We have to fight what I call the next generational war on terror. It’s the 7- and 8-year-olds,” Kinzinger added. “Doesn’t mean we fight them. It means we have to understand these are the ones that are either going to be the ones who are our enemies or they’re going to be the ones who reject terrorism within their own community.”
Sen. Angus King, a Maine independent who caucuses with Democrats, echoed Kinzinger’s concerns, also telling “New Day” that Trump’s decision to share the videos “was wildly counter to our national security interests.”
“This is literally part of the ISIS and jihadist playbook, to separate the west from Islam,” King said. “There are 1.9 billion Muslims in the world. Do we really want to alienate them?”