JIM SCIUTTO: Jeffrey, I want to give you a chance to respond. So Donald Trump said he is not obligated to respond to questions about the president. Is he obligated to stand up to a questioner who makes a broader criticism of Muslims in general in America as this questioner appeared to do?
JEFFREY LORD: Well, first of all, Jim, I don't think there is anything -- I mean the implication here in all this sort of media-induced firestorm, is that it is somehow a slur to say that someone is Muslim.
SCIUTTO: No, no, Jeffrey. To be fair, that was not the point. The questioner said, “We have a problem” -- and I'm paraphrasing here, but -- “We have a problem in America. It's Muslims in America.” I mean it's not -- he was talking about Muslims in America being a problem.
LORD: Right. Jim, you and I know and Ron knows that every other day, when we pick up a newspaper or turn on the television, we are seeing, you know, that authorities have unraveled some plot by Islamic extremists here in this country, all of whom are Muslims. So to say that we have a quote unquote, “Muslim problem” is not to say anything outrageous. It's a simple statement of fact. There's no bias or bigotry to it. We do have a problem here.
SCIUTTO: No. Well, I'm sorry to say -- you can say you have -- no, no. I got to disagree with you there. You can say you can have an Islamic extremist problem. You can't say you have Muslim problem anymore than you can say you have a Christian problem if people who carry out crimes happen to be Christians -- right?
LORD: But Christians aren't committing crimes because of their religion, are they?
