Republicans would have blamed Obama for 9/11

Topics: ♦ Obama ♦ President Barack Obama

 

On his show Tuesday night, MSBNC host Chris Matthews said Republicans would have blamed the September 11 terror attacks on President Barack Obama if he were in office at the time.
The liberal TV host began by calling on Republicans to stop blaming Obama for failing to clean up the mess they created during the Bush administration. He also accused Republicans of stoking so-called birther conspiracies about Obama.

“Imagine if Democrats played this rough,” Matthews said. “Imagine if they blamed the Republican Party for a failure of national security on the eve of  9/11? Does anyone doubt they’d have done it to the Democrats had the horrible attacks occurred on Obama’s watch? Really. Can’t you hear the birthers and tea partiers gyrating with righteous indignation over that one?”

He said Republicans were “dying” for voters to “reward them for the single virtue of having lost the last election so they didn’t have to be here cleaning up the mess they left behind.”

Watch video, courtesy of MSNBC, below:

 

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Giuliani warns of 'new 9/11' if Democrats win

By: Roger Simon
April 24, 2007 08:29 PM EST
Updated: April 25, 2007 01:28 PM EST

MANCHESTER, N.H. —- Rudy Giuliani said if a Democrat is elected president in 2008, America will be at risk for another terrorist attack on the scale of Sept. 11, 2001.

But if a Republican is elected, he said, especially if it is him, terrorist attacks can be anticipated and stopped.

“If any Republican is elected president —- and I think obviously I would be the best at this —- we will remain on offense and will anticipate what [the terrorists] will do and try to stop them before they do it,” Giuliani said.

The former New York City mayor, currently leading in all national polls for the Republican nomination for president, said Tuesday night that America would ultimately defeat terrorism no matter which party gains the White House.

“But the question is how long will it take and how many casualties will we have?” Giuliani said. “If we are on defense [with a Democratic president], we will have more losses and it will go on longer.”

“I listen a little to the Democrats and if one of them gets elected, we are going on defense,” Giuliani continued. “We will wave the white flag on Iraq. We will cut back on the Patriot Act, electronic surveillance, interrogation and we will be back to our pre-Sept. 11 attitude of defense.”

He added: “The Democrats do not understand the full nature and scope of the terrorist war against us.”

After his speech to the Rockingham County Lincoln Day Dinner, I asked him about his statements and Giuliani said flatly: “America will be safer with a Republican president.”

Giuliani, whose past positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights have made him anathema to some in his party, believes his tough stance on national defense and his post-Sept. 11 reputation as a fighter of terrorism will be his trump card with doubting Republicans.

“This war ends when they stop coming here to kill us!” Giuliani said in his speech. “Never, ever again will this country ever be on defense waiting for [terrorists] to attack us if I have anything to say about it. And make no mistake, the Democrats want to put us back on defense!”

Giuliani said terrorists “hate us and not because of anything bad we have done; it has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us for the freedoms we have and the freedoms we want to share with the world.”

Giuliani continued: “The freedoms we have are in conflict with the perverted, maniacal interpretation of their religion.” He said Americans would fight for “freedom for women, the freedom of elections, freedom of religion and the freedom of our economy.”

Addressing the terrorists directly, Giuliani said: “We are not giving that up, and you are not going to take it from us!”

Giuliani 9/11 remark draws angry Dem reply
The crowd thundered its approval.

Giuliani