I can’t lie. I actually like Juan. His sons are conservative actually, I think. Of course I agree with almost nothing he says. But doesn’t have the horrifying cruel streak that many on the left have. And this comment is beneath him.
I like Juan too. Way back to his cross fire days with Novak. And yes both his sons are republicans. One of them was the president of the young republicans at whatever college or university he attended.
No, this comment is typical of him.
A lot of the contributors are just winging it and letting things slip out without thinking about them.
Lindsay Graham said:
“He should have been subject to being shot out of the sky. I don’t know why he wasn’t, but our nation is under siege. Radical Islam is a threat to our homeland. There are probably radical Islamic cells in our backyard already, and if somebody is willing to, you know, approach vital government infrastructure, they should do so at their own peril.”
Juan Williams came up with this:
“I would say we need less emphasis on the hysteria and the fear and the firing and more emphasis on the idea that we are an open democratic society. We have to focus on closing gaps for the low-flying aircraft and the drone that landed on the White House lawn. We have to address that. We can do this sensibly. The idea we should be more militaristic. Senator Graham said we should have shot down this mail carrier. Goodness gracious, if he had been a black Muslim, maybe we would have.”
I'm not sure that Graham actually said the mail carrier "should have been shot down," just that he "should have been subject to being shot out of the sky." Not exactly the same thing? Or basically the same thing?
It sounds like the reference to Islamic cells or something else in the Senator's comment got under Juan's skin and he wanted to lob something back in Lindsay Graham's direction. It wasn't a very well thought out response and it may have had a lot to do with the specific context of Graham's appearance on the show.