Caplis: “If you want America to surrender in this war, then vote for the Democrats. You have a shared interest at that point with the terrorists”

Written by Media Matters Staff

Published

During his 630 KHOW-AM show, host Dan Caplis declared, “If you want America to surrender in this war [in Iraq], then vote for the Democrats. You have a shared interest at that point with the terrorists.” Citing a New York Times column by Thomas Friedman, he later asserted, “You will be encouraging the terrorists to kill lots of innocent people in the run-up to our next election.”

On the October 19 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show, co-host Dan Caplis declared, “If you want America to surrender in this war [in Iraq], then vote for the Democrats. You have a shared interest at that point with the terrorists.” Citing an October 18 column by New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman, Caplis later asserted that “the reality is, if Friedman is right -- I believe he is ... then by electing Democrats, you will be encouraging the terrorists to use this tactic again.” Caplis added, “You will be encouraging the terrorists to kill lots of innocent people in the run-up to our next election. So that is a real-world, practical dynamic do you factor in.”

In the column [subscription required] Caplis cited, Friedman argued, regarding recent increased violence in Iraq, “The jihadists want to sow so much havoc that Bush supporters will be defeated in the midterms and the president will face a revolt from his own party, as well as from Democrats, if he does not begin a pullout from Iraq.”

From the October 19 broadcast of 630 KHOW-AM's The Caplis & Silverman Show:

CAPLIS (addressing co-host Craig Silverman): You know, and you've pursued this Vietnam-Iraq comparison before. I completely reject it for the reasons we've litigated before. Just a week ago on this show you mocked me when I said that these jihadists were killing more people in Iraq because they wanted the Democrats to win the election, because they wanted America to surrender and, hey -- you're right. If you want America to surrender in this war, then vote for the Democrats. You have a shared interest at that point with the terrorists. You may have it for different reasons, but you have a shared interest with the terrorists in America surrendering in this war. But if you don't want to see America surrender and lose -- there's grave danger in this. And I think you're not addressing this in your analysis, and that is completely unlike the immigration issue. Here the reality is, if Friedman is right -- I believe he is; you don't seem to be disagreeing with him -- if Friedman is right, then by electing Democrats, you will be encouraging the terrorists to use this tactic again. You will be encouraging the terrorists to kill lots of innocent people in the run-up to our next election, so that is a real-world, practical dynamic do you factor in.