UPDATED: Walker: If I Can Take On Union Protesters, I Can Take On ISIL (VIDEO) [View all]

[DonViejo]

Last edited Fri Feb 27, 2015, 12:29 PM - Edit history (1)

Source: TPM

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R) on Thursday said that his experience with protests over his law eliminating collective bargaining rights for public employees has prepared him to confront terrorists.

After his speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference, an audience member asked Walker how he would deal with threats like the Islamic State if he were president.

"I want a commander-in-chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists do not wash up on American soil. We will have someone who leads and ultimately will send a message not only that we will protect American soil but do not take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world," he responded. "We need a leader with that kind of confidence. If I can take on a 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world."

National Review's Jim Geraghty lambasted Walker's "terrible" response on how he would address ISIL. "The protesters in Wisconsin, so furiously angry over Walker’s reforms and disruptive to the procedures of passing laws, earned plenty of legitimate criticism. But they’re not ISIS," Geraghty wrote. "They’re not beheading innocent people. They’re Americans, and as much as we may find their ideas, worldview, and perspective spectacularly wrongheaded, they don’t deserve to be compared to murderous terrorists."

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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/walker-unions-isil-cpac

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UPDATE:



Walker Scrambles To Explain His Answer On Unions And The Islamic State

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In an interview with Bloomberg Politics' Mark Halperin and John Heilemann after the CPAC speech, Heilemann gave Walker a golden opportunity to deny that he was equating violent extremists with union protesters.

"You're not actually comparing ISIS terrorists to the protesters in Wisconsin, right?" Heilemann asked him. "You're not trying to make that comparison in either direction, that the protesters are equivalent to terrorists or that the terrorists are equivalent to protesters?"

"Not by a landmine -- by a landslide out there difference, a Grand Canyon-sized difference," Walker replied. "My point was just if I can handle that kind of pressure, that kind of intensity, I think I'm up for the challenge for whatever might come if i choose to run for President."

By the time Walker gave an interview to Fox News' Sean Hannity, he'd entirely removed the protester mention from his talking points on the Islamic State. Walker told Hannity that the U.S. needs to "take [the Islamic State] out entirely," comparing the violent extremists to a virus that infects a computer.

Full article
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scott-walker-backtracks-union-protesters-isil