Proposals by Republican presidential candidates to ban Muslims from the country or increase surveillance in Muslim neighborhoods after terror attacks overseas are “an embarrassment,” Secretary of State John Kerry said on Sunday.
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Kerry said foreign leaders are aghast. “Everywhere I go, every leader I meet, they ask about what is happening in America. They cannot believe it. I think it is fair to say they’re shocked.”
Republicans Donald Trump, front-runner for the party’s 2016 nomination, and Ted Cruz, his main challenger, stepped up their calls for measures aimed at Muslims in the U.S. after deadly bombings in Brussels on March 22 that killed at least 28 people.
“We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized,” Texas Sen. Cruz said in a statement on March 22. Trump in November proposed a temporary ban on Muslims entering the U.S., and has advocated broader use of torture on terror suspects.
The rhetoric “upsets people’s sense of equilibrium about our steadiness, about our reliability,” Kerry said. “It’s clear to me that what’s happening is an embarrassment to our country.”
The head of the largest U.S. police force also criticized calls for patrols of Muslim neighborhoods. “We already patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods, the same way we patrol and secure other neighborhoods,” New York Police Commissioner Bill Bratton wrote in an opinion piece for the New York Daily News on Saturday.
“It is clear from his comments that Senator Cruz knows absolutely nothing about counter terrorism in New York City,” Bratton wrote.
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9 Responses
While it is true that comments by Republican candidates are a bit too strident, the real source of embarrasment is Secretary Kerry himself. The world is still laughing after an earlier response to terrorism in France by Kerry. I suppose that in Kerry’s view, bringing a guitar-strumming poet, sooths all wounds. Yes, look back…our Secretary of State really did that. …and the world is also laughing at President Obama. Rather than deal with problems, he is off to Cuba, one of his dogmatic goals. and on a previous terrorist attack….rather than deal with it, he went to a climate conference
…As far as Commissioner Bratton is concerned…another loser. Rather than policing properly, he has embraced Mayor DeBlassio’s view of the world. The result is an increase in slashings and stabbings with a super spike in New York’s crime rate. So “of course”, Commissioner Bratton can ill-afford to criticize anyone.
Embarrassment, eh?
Kol haposel, bemumo posel.
my dear mr kerry: you’re embarassed because world leaders are shocked over the suggestion to temporarily ban muslims? really! and you aren’t embarassed over the fact that the cockeyed deal you made with iran is just that—cockeyed! and you’re also not embarassed that the whole world literally laughs at us? finally we have presidential candidates with concrete ideas (even though they’re not politically correct) and you’re concerned over what some foreign leader has to say about it. shame on you!
Until Kerry or Obama your kids would be killed .
America has more problems than the Republican Campaign. True that the campaign has turned, what I see, as the most horrible and dirty one in many, many years and we can all thank Trump the Chump for that. He has a foul mouth and doesn’t have a clue as to what is reality.
The most important problem America has is you, Kerry and that idiot boss of yours in the White House.
Between you, Obumma, and the Chump I see this country either going straight down or to war.
All 3 of you should go home, on your own nickel, and shut your bad and ignorant mouths.
I believe its Kerry whose an embarrassment to our country. From the Iran deal to his mere presence on the national scene.
Someone said that not all moslems are terrorists but ALL TERRORISTS ARE MOSLEMS.
The time for political correctness left this country in 1993 with the first bombing of the World Trade center and has has reiterated itself since that time.
Not really surprising coming from the same guy who helped create the problem in the first place
The only embarrassment is a secretary of state who feels that it is necessary to have multiple plastic surgeries on his chin.
Sounds like sour grapes to me….