Friday, political pundit Piers Morgan and comedian Jim Jefferies appeared on HBO’s Real Time with Bill Maher–and things got heated. During one segment, Maher asked for an apology from those who called Hillary Clinton the lesser of two evils:
“Can I ask this one last question? The people who said during the campaign that Hillary Clinton was the lesser of two evils, could we get the apology right now?”
Morgan asked “why,” which led to the following exchange among Maher, Morgan, and Jim Jefferies:
MAHER: “Why? Are you serious?”
MORGAN: “I’m serious.”
MAHER: “Like Hillary Clinton would have a cabinet with Betsy DeVos and f***ing Rick Perry?”
JEFFERIES: “She wouldn’t have a Muslim ban.”
MAHER: “They wouldn’t have a Muslim ban; they wouldn’t be feuding with everybody in the world; they wouldn’t be doing this sh*t with Russia. Are you crazy?!”
MORGAN: “Calm down, Bill. There is no Muslim ban. If there was–“
JEFFERIES: “F*** off! [It’s] a f***ing Muslim ban! He said there was a Muslim ban. There’s a Muslim ban!”
MORGAN: “This is the hysteria I’m talking about. 85% of the world’s Muslims are allowed into the country.”
JEFFERIES: “This is what you do, Piers. You say: ‘He hasn’t done this. He hasn’t done that. He’s not gonna do all these things.’ Give him a f***ing chance, mate! Hitler didn’t kill the Jews on the first day; he worked up to it.”
MORGAN: “That is the exact ridiculous, hysterical, over the top nonsense that is, I’m afraid–“
JEFFERIES: “If people got hysterical in Germany, then it wouldn’t–“
MORGAN: “He’s not the new Hitler.”
JEFFERIES: “You just like that you won The Apprentice, and you have a famous friend, mate…”
For the sake of intellectual honesty, it must be said: Piers Morgan is correct. There has indeed been a hysteria surrounding the actions of Donald Trump, and that hysteria has inflamed and distorted the facts.
President Trump’s executive order (EO) is not a “Muslim ban,” as it has been characterized by the media. The EO restricts immigration from seven majority-Muslim nations: Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen. However, according to Pew Research, there are 49 majority-Muslim nations, and Trump’s EO “would affect only about 12% of the world’s Muslims.”
Pew adds that out of the seven nations listed in the EO, only one (Iran) “is among the 10 countries with the largest Muslim populations.”
Trump’s executive order was poorly conceived, and even more poorly executed, but a “Muslim ban” it is not. In fact, the seven countries chosen by the Trump administration were first identified by the Obama administration as hotbeds for terror.
Through the lens of hysteria, what could otherwise be a rational debate can become warped. There are grounds on which one can critique President Trump–and he should be held to account for his behavior when necessary–but misidentifying his actions dilutes any real and relevant criticism.
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