The refusal to call Islamic terrorists Islamic is nothing new for President Obama and his White House. But during a visit Thursday from French President Francois Hollande as part of the nuclear summit being held in Washington D.C., the White House scrubbed the words "Islamic extremists" from remarks made by Hollande during an audio and video translation. The White House did publish the full remarks on Whitehouse.gov.
This is what the White House translated in the video and audio of the remarks, from MRC:
Here's what the WH censored in its video and audio of Hollande's remarks yesterday. https://t.co/QT8EP1K9eV pic.twitter.com/7HsIRGzWrz
— Sean Davis (@seanmdav) April 1, 2016
And this is what was said in full by Hollande and published on WhiteHouse.gov:
Europe has been hit more, given that it is also the target of the terrorists and ISIS. We've seen it in Paris last year, as well as in Brussels. And together with President Obama, we worked on coordinating further our commitments, our organizations, our services when it comes to fighting against these terrorists. We are also making sure that between Europe and the United States there can be a very high level coordination.
But we're also well aware that the roots of terrorism, Islamist terrorism, is in Syria and in Iraq. We therefore have to act both in Syria and in Iraq, and this is what we're doing within the framework of the coalition. And we note that Daesh is losing ground thanks to the strikes we've been able to launch with the coalition. We are continuing to support Iraq. This is also a decision we have taken, supporting the Iraqi government and making sure that they can claim back their entire territory, including Mosul.
You cannot beat an enemy that you are unwilling to name. The French get it. Unfortunately, President Obama and his White House do not.