© 2024 Blaze Media LLC. All rights reserved.
CNN panelist makes wild claim about Donald Trump and ISIS, then has to apologize
CNN panelist Julia Ioffe apologized for saying Trump has radicalized more people than ISIS. (Image source: CNN video screenshot)

CNN panelist makes wild claim about Donald Trump and ISIS, then has to apologize

As many on CNN and other mainstream media platforms call for President Donald Trump to tone down his rhetoric, panelist and GQ journalist Julia Ioffe took things to the extreme in blaming Trump for today's explosive political climate.

Ioffe was on CNN's "The Lead," hosted by Jake Tapper, discussing Trump's impact with the other panelists when she made a truly hyperbolic claim.

"This president, one of the things he really launched his presidential run on is talking about Islamic radicalization, and this president has radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did," Ioffe said, spurring immediate pushback from other panelists.

You want to walk that back?

Ioffe, whose phone was probably buzzing nonstop with angry Twitter mentions, didn't even make it through the show before realizing she had to apologize for what she said. Here's the apology:

I do want to clarify. I think I spoke in the heat of the moment. This has been a very emotional and personally painful time for me. I think exaggerated, and I apologize for that.

But the point I was trying ham-fistedly to make is that it’s not a coincidence that, according to the ADL, the number of anti-Semitic attacks has jumped by nearly 60 percent in the first year that Donald Trump was in office. And it’s no coincidence because even though the main danger is home-grown, right-wing extremists, as many studies have pointed out, this administration has methodically shifted resources away from monitoring those people, away from trying to control those people, and keep them from committing violence.

But I do apologize for that heated rhetoric. It was not factual.

She also tweeted another apology:

Not the first time?

Ioffe seems to have somewhat of a tendency to make extreme comments, which have gotten her in trouble before. Politico terminated her contract early after an offensive tweet she wrote about Donald and Ivanka Trump ("Either Trump is f**king his daughter or he's shirking nepotism laws. Which is worse?")

Her CNN comments weren't the only inflammatory remarks she made Monday; she also raised eyebrows by tweeting "I have to say, I feel less safe as a journalist in America these days than I ever did in Russia. A lot less safe." The tweet appears to be a thinly veiled reference to Trump's attacks on media.

And Saturday, she blamed Trump for making the mass murder at a Pittsburgh synagogue possible.

"And a word to my fellow American Jews: This president makes this possible. Here. Where you live," Ioffe tweeted. "I hope the embassy move over there, where you don't live was worth it."

Want to leave a tip?

We answer to you. Help keep our content free of advertisers and big tech censorship by leaving a tip today.
Want to join the conversation?
Already a subscriber?