On Wednesday's CNN Tonight, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times and liberal analyst Rula Jebreal bewailed the latest Bloomberg poll that found that 53 percent of Americans are opposed to letting 10,000 Syrian refugees into the country. Kristof hyped that "this almost exactly matches up a poll in January 1939 of whether or not to admit 10,000 mostly Jewish children into the U.S.....in retrospect, we clearly acknowledge that was a shameful period in American history." Jebreal slammed this majority as "racist," and cried, "They're weaponizing fear! That poll reflects fear." [video below]
Anchor Don Lemon turned to the two left-of-center talking heads for their take on the ongoing controversy over the Syrian refugees. After citing the statistics from the Bloomberg poll, Lemon wondered, "Is this really surprising?" Kristof immediately replied with his January 1939 citation, and added that "when you have people in such desperate need, to turn our backs on them completely, I think, is not only a loss of humanity, but also misunderstands the security situation."
The CNN host followed up by asking, "What does this say about — because, you know, when it says just only let the Christians in, right? Does this say anything about Islamophobia?" Jubreal answered twice interjected her "racist" blast at the majority revealed by the Bloomberg poll. Lemon continued by claiming that "Of course, there's Islamophobia, but the way — how we really feel about immigrants, no matter what...their background — are Americans as open to immigrants as we would like to think that we are?" As you might have expected, the liberal analyst continued her attack:
DON LEMON: I mean, of course, there's Islamophobia...but the way — how we really feel about immigrants, no matter what — you know, what their background — are Americans as open to immigrants as we would like to think that we are?
JEBREAL: Exactly; exactly. Whether it's Mexicans or — or, I mean, some — obviously—
LEMON: Right— or Jews back — yeah—
JEBREAL: Or Jews back then. It's shameful. But it's — I'm sorry to say: some leaders will exploit any tragedy to score political points.
And we have to address the larger issue: they're weaponizing fear! That poll reflects fear. Our policy has been driven by fear for the last 15 years. It's — it's time to stop that. I never heard any of the GOP condemning, actually, the people behind the radicalization in the world: our ally — number-one ally, Saudi Arabia.
The anchor did point out that "there are those who say, considering what is happening in the world — what happened with the airliner; what happened in Paris — that they want to make darn sure that the process to screen individuals coming in — that is as stringent as possible, and that we need to take a pause — even though the process is a two-year screening process." Kristof and Jebreal dismissed this conservative worldview with the same talking point:
KRISTOF: There's a legitimate concern about security, but I think there's a misunderstanding about where the threat comes. It doesn't come from refugees. There have been more than 700,000 refugees brought in since 9/11. Three of them have been arrested for terror-related offenses.
If ISIS wants to send somebody in to create a terror incident, they're not going to send them in for a two-year wait for a refugee visa. They're going to send them in on a tourist visa — on a student visa—
LEMON: But do we know that? Do we know that? I mean—
KRISTOF: Yeah. It takes—
JEBREAL: I mean, look at the hijackers of the airplanes on — September 11 terrorists! They were on student — on tourist — student/tourist visas!
KRISTOF: On student and tourist visas — the Tsarnaev brothers came that way.
JEBREAL: Fifteen of them were — came from our country — ally number two, Saudi Arabia. But we never complain with these allies. We need to start questioning these policies, because if we want our children, for the next 15 years, to live — to live what Paris lived in these days, we need to continue repeating the same policies that been put in place for the last four decades — backing tyranny and backing dictators who oppress their people; produced there; and then, forceful intervention. This is a spiral.
It should be pointed out that Kristof leaves out a key detail regarding the Tsarnaev brothers. Their family did indeed come in on tourist visas, but their father obtained "asylum by claiming political persecution" in Russia, as the writer's own newspaper, the New York Times, reported back in May 2013.
The transcript of the relevant portion of the Kristof/Jebreal segment from the November 18, 2015 edition of CNN Tonight:
DON LEMON: I want to bring back Nicholas Kristof now and Rula Jebreal. So, let's talk about it. I mentioned before this poll — it's a Bloomberg poll — it finds that 53 percent of adults polled that they say that they don't want the 10,000 Syrian refugees that the U.S. is planning to bring here — it has said that they'd take. Only 28 percent — only 28 percent say that it would be okay; and 11 percent say they'd take only the Christians — an idea that President Obama has said is 'shameful.' Is this — is this really surprising?
NICHOLAS KRISTOF, COLUMNIST, NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, this very — this almost exactly matches up a poll in January 1939—
LEMON: Right—
RULA JEBREAL, FOREIGN POLICY ANALYST: Yes—
KRISTOF: Of whether or not to admit 10,000 mostly Jewish children into the U.S — and it was, again, two to one saying, no, we shouldn't. And in retrospect, we clearly acknowledge that was a shameful period in American history. You had a boatload of American (sic) Jews who arrived in the U.S. — we sent them back to Europe to be killed.
At the same time today, when you have people in such desperate need, to turn our backs on them completely, I think, is not only a loss of humanity, but also misunderstands the security situation.
LEMON: But what does this say about — because, you know, when it says just only let the Christians in, right? Does this say anything about Islamophobia?
JEBREAL: Racist!
LEMON: I mean, of course, there's Islamophobia—
JEBREAL: So, racist—
LEMON: But the way — how we really feel about immigrants, no matter what — you know, what their background — are Americans as open to immigrants as we would like to think that we are?
JEBREAL: Exactly; exactly. Whether it's Mexicans or — or, I mean, some — obviously—
LEMON: Right— or Jews back — yeah—
JEBREAL: Or Jews back then. It's shameful. But it's — I'm sorry to say: some leaders will exploit any tragedy to score political points.
And we have to address the larger issue: they're weaponizing fear! That poll reflects fear. Our policy has been driven by fear for the last 15 years. It's — it's time to stop that. I never heard any of the GOP condemning, actually, the people behind the radicalization in the world: our ally — number-one ally, Saudi Arabia—
LEMON: But there are those who would say that they have—
JEBREAL: They are willing to take it with a Syrian refugee, and not with the biggest — with the biggest exporter of radicalization—
LEMON: But there are those who say, considering what is happening in the world — what happened with the airliner; what happened in Paris — that they want to make darn sure that the process to screen individuals coming in — that is as stringent as possible, and that we need to take a pause — even though the process is a two-year screening process—
KRISTOF: There's a legitimate concern about security, but I think there's a misunderstanding about where the threat comes. It doesn't come from refugees. There have been more than 700,000 refugees brought in since 9/11. Three of them have been arrested for terror-related offences.
If ISIS wants to send somebody in to create a terror incident, they're not going to send them in for a two-year wait for a refugee visa. They're going to send them in on a tourist visa — on a student visa—
LEMON: But do we know that? Do we know that? I mean—
KRISTOF: Yeah. It takes—
JEBREAL: I mean, look at the hijackers of the airplanes on — September 11 terrorists! They were on student — on tourist — student/tourist visas!
KRISTOF: On student and tourist visas — the Tsarnaev brothers came that way.
JEBREAL: Fifteen of them were — came from our country — ally number two, Saudi Arabia. But we never complain with these allies. We need to start questioning these policies, because if we want our children, for the next 15 years, to live — to live what Paris lived in these days, we need to continue repeating the same policies that been put in place for the last four decades — backing tyranny and backing dictators who oppress their people; produced there; and then, forceful intervention. This is a spiral—
LEMON: But you're talking about winning hearts and minds, which is what the President is saying—
JEBREAL: No, no, no, no—
LEMON: Changing the behavior that causes this to happen—
JEBREAL: Not only that — I am fine with a military solution with boots on the grounds, but they have to be native boots. You want your Muslim ally to fight with you? Today, they are not seeing ISIS as priority number one. And you know why? Because they are bombarded by — the Sunni majority in Syria don't see ISIS as a threat number one. They see ,actually, Assad, who killed them in huge numbers. Saudi Arabia is not fighting ISIS. They are fighting the Houthis in Yemen. You have Turkey fighting the PKK.
You have to talk to your ally clearly about they have to do — in terms of their foreign policy — but also domestic policies. When they oppress their own people, sooner or later, they will create an environment that is fertile for radicalization.
LEMON: I want to talk — if you want to weigh in, go ahead.
KRISTOF: Yeah. I mean, I just say that, clearly, security is on people's minds, and security is a legitimate issue. But the focus on refugees is the wrong focus.
LEMON: But when you hear there's a two-year screening process—
KRISTOF: Yes—
LEMON: And everything that you just said that — you know, there — we have all these things built in. Does someone want to wait that long? Does it — people don't hear that. They just see that there are refugees — one of them may have — one or two of them may have come over to Paris in that process. People don't hear the rest of the — yeah—
JEBERAL: But Don, none of them came to — I mean, the passport that was found is a fake passport. We need to stress this in the media. I'm sorry!
