MSNBC host Chris Jansing, talking to Congressman Keith Ellison, misled her viewers today by saying this of Allen West as she led into a video clip:
He went on a TV show and made these comments not just about you but about your faith specifically.
Here’s the quote from the video of Allen West she played following that statement:
So that when you run into someone that is counter, or someone that really does represent the antithesis of the principles upon which this country was established, you’ve got to be able to defeat them intellectually in debate and discourse, and you to just have to be able to challenge each and every one of their assertions very wisely and very forthright
It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to realize West said NOTHING about Islam in the clip she played. He was referring solely to Keith Ellison’s views and not those of Islam. How do I know this? West used the word ‘someone’ twice in describing what he was describing. It was clear he was responding to a person and not a faith. What Jansing does here is either because of carelessness or malice.
For the record West replied to a request for an apology from religious leaders over this yesterday (h/t Weasel Zippers):
“I am neither anti-Muslim nor anti-Islam,” West writes them in response. “I respect every religion, and the Constitutionally-protected right to practice that faith in a peaceful manner.”
Attempting to explain his comments about Rep. Ellison, West states that he is concerned with the “radical jihadist movement” within Islam, and accuses the Council on American-Islamic Relations of being one of a few American groups “that masquerade as more peaceful moderates” while supporting that movement.
“My comments in regards to my colleague, Representative Keith Ellison, are not about his Islamic faith, but about his continued support of CAIR,” West writes, a point the congressman was unclear about when making his original controversial statement.
Below is the video: