On Saturday afternoon, MSNBC anchor David Gura played a couple of edited clips of Secretary of State Mike Pompeo speaking to a church in 2014 and invited guest and Democratic activist Khizr Khan to complain about how the then-congressman spoke about Muslims -- even though, seconds later in a part of the speech MSNBC omitted, Pompeo was clearly referring to what he described as "absolutely a small minority within the Muslim faith" being at war with Christianity.
Nearing the end of the segment on MSNBC Live at 3:40 p.m. Eastern, Gura referred to Khan's anti-Donald Trump speech from the 2016 Democratic National Convention and gushed that it "was a warning to those gathered there and watching what might happen." He then brought up the Pompeo clips as he added: "The Intercept -- the news site -- has unearthed a recording of him back in 2014 talking about Muslims. Let's take a listen to what he had to say back then."
Then played two edited clips of the then-congressman speaking at a church in Wichita, Kansas:
POMPEO CLIP #1: This threat to America is from people who deeply believe that Islam is the way and the light, and the only answer.
POMPEO CLIP #2: We need to recognize that these folks believe that it is religiously driven to wipe Christians from the face of the Earth.
After carefully editing out the part of the speech when Pompeo stated that it is "absolutely a small minority within the Muslim faith" -- which literally came a mere seven seconds later -- the MSNBC host then posed to his liberal guest:
Then-Congressman, now-Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. I just want you to react to that and to the whole foreign policy scene we have now in the Trump administration. How worried about the direction of that team are you at this point, given what we heard there and other comments that we've heard from the likes of Secretary Pompeo and from the National Security Advisor, John Bolton as well?
Even though radical Muslims do, in fact, consider themselves to be at war with other faiths -- just as Pompeo stated -- Khan viewed the remarks as a "dog whistle" as he began: "Pompeo and Bolton seem to use this division and hatred against one another among Muslims and other faiths among Americans as a dog whistle to generate hatred and generate support for themselves."
The liberal activist then went on to claim that the Trump administration is behaving in an "authoritarian" manner similar to "dictators."
