Refusal To Describe Attacks As ’Radical Islamic Terrorism’ A Question Of ‘Accuracy’
Press Secretary Josh Earnest defended President Obama and White House officials for refusing to describe the terrorist attacks in Paris as a consequence of radical Islamic terrorism.
Earnest explained to White House reporters during the press briefing that this is a question of “accuracy.”
“We want to describe exactly what happened. These are individuals who carried out an act of terrorism, and they later tried to justify that act of terrorism by invoking the religion of Islam in their own deviant view of it,” he said.
Critics of Obama have questioned his refusal to identify the terrorist actions as an act of radical Islamic terrorism.
“You cannot win a battle against radical Islamic terrorism if you’re unwilling to utter the words ‘radical Islamic terrorism,’” Sen. Ted Cruz said last June.
“[W]e have not chosen to use that label because it doesn’t seem to accurately describe what had happened,” Earnest said.