Just Acknowledge It

By Ed Hoffman

Jumping to conclusions is something that leaders on the left refuse to do when it comes to terror. Case in point: This weekend’s bombings in New York City and New Jersey were committed by the same individual, Ahmad Rahami. Rahami is a 28-year-old naturalized citizen who is believed to have become radicalized after a series of trips to his homeland of Afghanistan over the last three years. But before they knew who the culprit was, New York City Mayor Bill DeBlasio and New York Governor Andrew Cuomo both delivered their own “we can’t jump to conclusions” statements to the media. I’m quoting here…

• DeBlasio on Saturday: “There’s no evidence at this point of a terror connection.”
• Cuomo on Saturday: “The mayor was saying there’s no connection at this point with international terrorism, and that is correct.”

But after the FBI gave them information on the suspect, these two were singing a different tune.

• DeBlasio on Sunday: “It’s certainly leaning more in the direction that this was a specific act of terror.” (You think?)
• Cuomo on Sunday: “Yesterday we had no evidence suggesting an international terror attack stimulated by a foreign presence or a foreign body. Today, I believe we’re going find out it was influenced by foreign forces.” (Is he trying to set a new record for use of the word “foreign” in a single sentence?)

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie took a slightly better approach. “You don’t want to jump to conclusions and you don’t want to put information out there that you don’t know is absolutely true,” he said. “But,” he continued, “obviously if you look at the number of these incidents, you can call them whatever you want, they are terrorism, though. There’s no doubt about that. They’re terrorism.”

Thank God somebody had their head on straight.

In 2016, it should be painfully obvious that anyone who puts explosives in a pressure cooker, adds a remote trigger and places the device in a public place filled with innocent people is a terrorist. And what motivates the vast majority of terrorists? Say it with me: radical Islam.

But for some on the left, refusing to jump to conclusions is only the proper reaction unless they have a different conclusion in mind. In 2010, then-NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that the perpetrator of the Times Square car bombing was “a mentally deranged person, or somebody with a political agenda that doesn’t like the healthcare bill or something.” Of course, it was discovered within hours that he was actually a 30-year-old Pakistan-born resident of Connecticut who had recently returned from a Pakistani terrorist training camp. (Shocking, right?)

These denials are so transparent; people know that when a homemade bomb goes off in their city, it’s terrorism. They expect their leaders to acknowledge it, and maybe that’s why so many of them are getting behind a presidential candidate who isn’t afraid to.

Ed Hoffman is host of The Main Event on AM590, which airs Saturday 9:30 AM – 10:30 AM and Sunday 4:00 PM – 5:00 PM. Follow him on Twitter @EdHoffman, and like him on Facebook by searching The Main Event 590.