The Navy SEAL who killed Osama bin Laden a decade ago disagreed with an assessment from a former Lincoln Project adviser who alleged that the Republican Party poses a greater threat to the U.S. than al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban combined.
Robert J. O’Neill, who fired the shot that killed bin Laden 10 years ago this month, pushed back against MSNBC guest Kurt Bardella’s claim that the GOP are worse than terrorists because they are trying to remove Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) from House leadership.
“I’ve never met him, so I don’t want to talk any trash about him,” O’Neill told local D.C. “Mornings on the Mall” hosts Vince Coglianese and Mary Walter on Friday. “He’s obviously an educated dude. I think he’s trying to get a soundbite, which he definitely did on this one.”
“Go interview them in Yemen, go interview al Qaeda somewhere in northern Africa or Syria, and tell me how that goes,” O’Neill urged, referencing a tweet he issued in response to Bardella. “And then go try to interview someone on the House side of the GOP. One side’s probably going to try to cut your head off, and the other one won’t.”
I recently saw a pundit on MSNBC say the GOP is more dangerous than al Qaeda. I recommend he sets up interviews with both. Ya, know… see how it goes.
— Robert J. O'Neill (@mchooyah) May 6, 2021
“It’s so ridiculous, but again, it’s a talking point to get ratings to compare one side of the aisle to al Qaeda. But you don’t understand who al Qaeda is. I’m sure Kurt does, but that’s a silly statement. But he got what he wanted, you know. He got the likes and the followers.”
LISTEN:
Bardella, who used to work for Breitbart News and Rep. Darrell Issa (R-CA) before becoming an adviser to The Lincoln Project, told MSNBC host Joy Reid this week: “I’ve been thinking to myself this whole time, you know, al Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, the Taliban, the people who wanted to do harm to our nation and to our way of life and our democracy, they got nothing on what this Republican Party is doing.”
“The idea that a member of their party, of their leadership, who’s last name is Cheney, could be purged from their leadership for telling the truth about January 6, for telling the truth about a violent insurrection that claimed the lives of, among others, a Capitol police officer,” continued Bardella.
“The fact that people like Cheney won’t support the great lie that this election was rigged or there was voter fraud, the anti-Democratic forces are hijacking this party, purging one of the members who won’t abide by the party line, that is so detrimental and dangerous,” he continued.
“We are a two-party system in this country, that’s how it was built for better or worse. When one of those two parties becomes this radicalized and when the core of the party’s ideology is anti-Democratic, that is a very dangerous development going to result in more violence, that’s going to result in more attempts to overthrow our government, that’s going to result in people losing lives just like January 6,” Bardella added.
WATCH:
DERANGED: MSNBC contributor, former Lincoln Project guy, and GOP flack-turned-Democrat Kurt Bardella says Donald Trump and the GOP are WORSE and have done MORE damage to American than al-Qaeda, Osama bin Laden, and the Taliban combined.
Joy Reid says nothing to pushback. pic.twitter.com/WFSgKEjesf
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) May 6, 2021