MSNBC host Lawrence O’Donnell has suggested that U.S. military veterans are more likely to be terrorists than those who have crossed the border illegally into the United States.
Unsurprisingly, O’Donnell’s comments were met with massive backlash.
“The simple fact is, this country has suffered more deadly terrorism at the hands of American-born citizens who are veterans of the United States military than people who have crossed into this country at the southern border,” O’Donnell said.
“It is very clear from the evidence that if you want to worry about terrorism in this country, the United States Army is a much bigger problem than the southern border.”
Watch:
O’Donnell’s remarks came on the heels of the recent terror attack in New Orleans that left at least 15 dead and dozens injured.
42-year-old Shamsud-Din Jabbar, armed with a Glock and a .308 rifle, reportedly rammed a truck into crowds in the city’s French Quarter on New Year’s Day.
The FBI confirmed the attack as suspected terror event after an ISIS flag was discovered on the truck
O’Donnell used historical examples, including Timothy McVeigh, the Oklahoma City bomber, to argue that American veterans are more dangerous to America than illegal immigrants.
“Timothy McVeigh parked a truck outside that building loaded with explosives in an act of homegrown American terrorism,” O’Donnell said, referencing the 1995 bombing.
“Timothy McVeigh’s hatred of the American government was not tamed in any way by his service in the American military. So, too, with America’s latest terrorist attack in New Orleans on New Year’s Eve.”
O’Donnell also slammed President-elect Donald Trump for his response to the attack.
“When Donald Trump sees the type of terrorist attack that occurred in New Orleans, he doesn’t remember Timothy McVeigh and, instead, he blames the criminals that he imagines are crossing the southern border,” he said.
He continued by asserting:
“No one who has ever crossed the southern border, in the history of the existence of the southern border, has killed more people in this country than Timothy McVeigh, who was born in Lockport, New York, the northwest part of the state, into a White Roman Catholic American family with roots in this country that go back farther than Donald Trump’s roots in this country.”
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