On Fox News’ The Five Thursday, co-host Greg Gutfeld called out the Left’s desperate efforts to deny the threat of radical Islam and steer public discourse in the direction of gun control. Unlike mass shootings by individuals, he argued, radical Islam is not “self-limiting” and the threat it poses ultimately “dwarfs” those posed by lone killers.
Gutfeld’s comments came during a heated exchange with liberal co-host Juan Williams about the response to the mass shooting by a radicalized Muslim couple in San Bernardino, California. President Obama, Hillary Clinton, and other Democratic leaders immediately used the tragedy as another excuse to push their gun control agenda, while downplaying the apparent jihadist motivations of the killers and ignoring that guns were not the only weapons at play in the attack. The Right, meanwhile has focused more on the increasing threat of radicalization by terror groups like ISIS and al Qaeda.
Gutfeld accused Williams and the Left of being unwilling to “acknowledge” the reality of the threat posed by radical Islam—something Williams denied, while continuing to refuse to state conclusively that the attack was “terror.” Gutfeld argued that the Left’s attempt to redirect attention away from radical Islam is a “recurring” tactic.
“This is a fight for our civilization. And every single time a leader turns it into something else, it screws us over.”
Greg Gutfeld
“This is a recurring,” said Gutfeld. “They took the war on terror and they turned it into a war on immigration. They see the war on terror and they turn it into a gun control issue. By turning this into a gun issue, Juan, you pay less attention to the real threat. This is not about mass shooting. This was an act of terrorism. It’s saying it’s a mass shooting, tells America to worry less about, perhaps the biggest, greatest threat to civilization—the threat that’s going to affect your grandkids, Juan, long after you’re gone.”
Arguing that the San Bernardino tragedy “splits the politics into two camps,” one that “screams” about “mass shootings” and the other that points to “Islamic terror,” Gutfeld maintained that the latter is far worse because, as opposed to being “self-limiting” it seeks to promote a “mass movement.”
“A mass shooter in the end is self-limiting,” argued Gutfeld. “They will shoot a lot of people. In the end, they either commit suicide or they are shot. It’s finite. It’s over until another one happens. However, a terrorist, when they create an act, it’s to create a further act, to beget a greater terror, to get a mass movement to create apocalypse.”
“The idea is that it is not self-limiting,” he continued. “Terrorism is not self-limiting, it is expanding. So if you’re doing math—if you’re doing straight math mass shootings, you’re talking about dozens of people. I’m talking about a factor of 10, a factor of 100. So I understand your concern over mass shootings, but the concern over mass death, the concern of radical Islam dwarfs that. This is a fight for our civilization. And every single time a leader turns it into something else, it screws us over.”
Here’s the transcript of the exchange:
GREG GUTFELD: This is a recurring. They took the war on terror and they turned it into a war on immigration. They see the war on terror and they turn it into a gun control issue. By turning this into a gun issue, Juan, you pay less attention to the real threat. This is not about mass shooting. This was an act of terrorism. It’s saying it’s a mass shooting, tells America to worry less about, perhaps the biggest, greatest threat to civilization—the threat that’s going to affect your grandkids, Juan, long after you’re gone. They may not make it because of this threat. This act splits the politics into two camps. You have one that screams for mass shootings—this is mass shootings. You have another that says Islamic terror. So let’s do the math. Which is worse? A mass shooter in the end is self-limiting. They will shoot a lot of people. In the end, they either commit suicide or they are shot. It’s finite. It’s over until another one happens. However, a terrorist, when they create an act, it’s to create a further act, to beget a greater terror, to get a mass movement to create apocalypse.
KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE: To feed jihad.
GUTFELD: The idea is that it is not self-limiting. Terrorism is not self-limiting, it is expanding. So if you’re doing math—if you’re doing straight math mass shootings, you’re talking about dozens of people. I’m talking about a factor of 10, a factor of 100. So I understand your concern over mass shootings, but the concern over mass death, the concern of radical Islam dwarfs that. This is a fight for our civilization. And every single time a leader turns it into something else, it screws us over.
JUAN WILLIAMS: But I’m not turning it into something else. I’m willing to acknowledge—if it’s proven that this was terror—that it’s terror.
GUTFELD: It’s obviously terror, Juan.
[CROSS TALK]
WILLIAMS: My point to you is every day in America, we have many more people killed by guns than were killed yesterday. In fact yesterday in Savannah, Georgia, someone was shot, three others killed—
[…]
GUTFELD: I wish I was wrong on this and I wish you were right, because I can deal with mass shootings. But the apocalyptic threat of radical Islam is so scary that our president can’t even acknowledge it.
WILLIAMS: It doesn’t have to be one or the other.
GUTFELD: You can’t acknowledge it.
WILLIAM: I acknowledge it to you. What is wrong?
GUTFELD: The point is, when you wish you were wrong, you know you are. Because the reality is so frightening that you can’t face it.
Transcript via Media Matters.