Rear Admiral John Hutson (Ret.), speaks during the third day of the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Retired Rear Admiral John Hutson on Thursday blasted Donald Trump for his temperament and his continuous fear-mongering remarks about Muslims, and said terrorists are using Trump's remarks to rally terrorists.
"Donald Trump is a walking, talking recruiting poster for terrorists," Hutson said in his speech at the Democratic National Convention. "That's not hyperbole. ISIS literally used Trump in a commercial."
Plain Dealer fact check: True
The mass shooting in San Bernardino, Calif., in December, was committed by a U.S.-born citizen and a Pakistani-born permanent resident in this country legally. Authorities believe they supported ISIS. They killed 14 people and seriously injured 22.
After that tragedy, Trump said: "Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on."
Trump has repeated variations of that planned Muslim ban numerous times. Many fear that it will incite even more violence against U.S. citizens. That's what Hutson harped on Wednesday, saying:
"ISIS and other radical Islamic groups have no humanity. That is their weakness. Our enemy can't defeat us militarily. Victory won't be found on the battlefield. For them, victory is to make us more like them: people who torture, who destabilize the international order, who target innocents because they don't look like them or don't pray like them. Donald Trump is a walking, talking recruiting poster for terrorists.
"That's not hyperbole. ISIS literally used Trump in a commercial," Hutson said, adding:
"You know, you can tell a lot about a person by whom they admire. Eleanor Roosevelt, Nelson Mandela, Dorothy Rodham – these are Hillary Clinton's heroes. Donald Trump admires Donald Trump and Saddam Hussein and Kim Jong-un. And of Vladimir Putin, he said, and I quote, "in terms of leadership he's getting an 'A.'"
In January, the Somali terrorist group Al-Shabaab (which is affiliated with Al-Qaeda), released a 51-minute recruitment video. In the video, a man said, "Yesterday, America was a land of slavery, segregation, lynching and the Ku Klux Klan. And tomorrow, it will be a land of religious discrimination and concentration camps."
The video then went straight to a clip of Trump, calling for the halt in allowing Muslims into this country.
Here's links to the video clip of the recruitment commercial:
http://www.cnn.com/2016/01/02/middleeast/al-shabaab-video-trump/
To see more Plain Dealer fact checking of DNC speeches, go to: http://topics.cleveland.com/tag/dnc-2016-fact-check/