CNN Host Explains Trump Is “Cherry-Picking” Data From “A Wildly Flawed Poll” To Justify Banning Muslim Immigration

From the December 8 edition of CNN's New Day:

Video file

ALISYN CAMEROTA (HOST): Some of this was based on a poll that Donald Trump cited, that experts say is a wildly flawed poll. You must consider the source, of course, anytime you cite a poll. And this is from the Center for Security Policy by someone who has been classified as an Islamophobe. Here's one of the questions on the poll: Do you believe that jihad is an obligation of your practice of Islam? It doesn't define jihad. As we know, it has many, many different definitions. 41 percent say yes. 41 percent say no. 13 percent don't know what the question is. Six percent couldn't answer it. By the way, that adds up to more than 100, but -- either way, the point is, is that he's cherry-picking. He's decided that he has this feeling about Muslims and he's cherry-picking and he's not (added space)-- he's doing this thing where he sort of equates jihad and sharia with terrorism. I mean, he's just using the most broad brush strokes. Is this helpful, Jeffrey?

JEFFREY LORD: You know, I mean, I just disagree with the premise, Alisyn. I mean, we're at war with radical Islam. It's not, you know, a bunch of Congregationalists who walked in there in San Bernardino or who were on the streets of Boston. It's not.

CHRIS CUOMO (HOST) All right, so then you target the extremists. You don't target all of them, Jeffrey. You know that.

LORD: Look, we're not anti-Muslim. I mean, that's just, that's true.

CUOMO: Jeffrey, this is inherently anti-Muslim. You can't look at it another way. You can't say a blanket ban of an entire people is anything other than rabidly exclusionary. It's just what it is.

Previously:

Islamophobic Organization's Misleading Poll Used To Justify Donald Trump's Call To Ban Muslims From America

NBC News' Richard Engel On Trump's Proposal To Ban Muslims: “This Is Not The Country I Know”

As Trump Calls For Ban On Muslim Immigration, Fox Denies Existence Anti-Muslim “Backlash”

CNN's Smerconish: Right-Wing Media Helped Craft Trump's Plan To Ban Muslim Immigration