The emerging news about the deadly crash of EgyptAir Flight 804 makes it “seem pretty clear that it's terrorism," but it might have been wise for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump to leave some wiggle room in his statements, retired ambassador and CIA Director James Woolsey said Friday.
"Mr. Trump did in his first statement, where he said it 'looks like' terrorism," Woolsey told
Fox News' "America's Newsroom" program, referring to an early morning tweet the presumptive nominee posted Thursday. "And later I think he said well, '100 percent, if you don't think it's terrorism, you are 100 percent wrong.'"
Woolsey said he thinks it best to "avoid the 100 percent formulations, but it does look like as much, and if it's terrorism, I would say 90-10 [percent]."
Meanwhile, Woolsey said it is "ridiculous" to call ISIS fighters "violent extremists," as the Obama administration refers to them.
"They are jihadis," said Woolsey. "They are Islamics, or Islamists. Violent revolutionaries. There are different things you can call them, but violent extremists is politically correct and I think that's not a good formulation."
He continued that the Muslim Brotherhood strives "mightily to create a peaceful image in the United States, but they do have a violent side to them."
And President Barack Obama rarely communicates the dangers of ISIS and Islamic terrorism to the public because it doesn't fit his "narrative."
"They are capable of calling Major [Nidal] Hasan, who murdered his fellow soldiers at Fort Hood in a case of workplace violence," said Woolsey. "It's like calling the Puritans who burned the witches in Salem, Massachusetts, fireplace perpetrators. It's nuts."
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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