Buck Sexton, a host on TheBlaze Radio network and a CNN commentator, tore into one liberal professor late Thursday night for her progressive “knee-jerk reaction” to terror attacks.
The tense exchange arose when Mia Bloom, a professor at Georgia State University, took issue with Sexton’s suggestion that radical Islamist terrorists are “coming after us” in reaction to the deadly truck attackThursday night in Nice, France.
Bloom said the majority of the Islamic State’s victims are Muslims and “they’re not coming after us more than they’re coming after each other,” which is a fact Sexton, a former intelligence officer for the CIA, said he is aware of. He told Bloom he was trying to avoid a theological debate.
But Bloom kept on, taking great issue with Sexton’s suggestion that terrorists are “coming after us,” which she seemingly assumed meant only non-Muslim Americans.
“Yes, they are! They are, in fact, coming after us!” Sexton shot back. “When I saw us, I’m referring to America, to Europe, and the West, and all peaceful Muslims, and everyone around the world who doesn’t believe that strapping a suicide vest — because you’re disaffected, because you have some belief that somehow this will take you to a place of paradise and virgins, whatever the case may be.”
He continued, “Everybody who isn’t on that team, is on my team. This notion you have in your head that when I say ‘us’ I’m referring to — what? Republican Americans?”
Concluding his comments, Sexton lamented the “knee-jerk reaction” he often sees among liberals who, in the days after a terror attack, spend their time going after the “bad rhetoric” of their conservative counterparts “who want to speak openly and honestly about terrorism.”
“We’re just trying to empower the moderates from within Muslim society, we’re trying to empower our allies in the countries that we do work with in the Muslim world and outside the Muslim world to stop people from getting mowed down at a celebration of a national holiday — that’s it.”
Alas, Bloom remained steadfast in her disapproval of Sexton choice of words.