President Barack Obama downplayed the threat of terrorism in an interview with Vox published Monday, referring to the four Jewish victims murdered by radical Islamists during an hours-long standoff at a Kosher deli in Paris as “a bunch of folks” who were “randomly” shot.
“It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris,” Obama said.
(Vox)
(Vox)
He continued: “We devote enormous resources to that, and it is right and appropriate for us to be vigilant and aggressive in trying to deal with that — the same way a big city mayor’s got to cut the crime rate down if he wants that city to thrive. But we also have to attend to a lot of other issues, and we’ve got to make sure we’re right-sizing our approach so that what we do isn’t counterproductive. I would argue that our invasion of Iraq was counterproductive to the goal of keeping our country safe.”
Watch Obama’s comments below (relevant portion starts at around 1:50):