Severin's goodwill gesture to Arab countries: “cut off our own heads”

Written by Ben Armbruster

Published

On MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, Jay Severin, a former “cast member” of MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson, said that “the only meaningful gesture” Americans could make toward befriending Arab countries would be to “cut off our own heads right now as a gesture of good faith.”

During the March 1 broadcast of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning, host Don Imus questioned Jay Severin -- a Boston radio talk show host who used to be “a permanent cast member” of MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson -- on whether the United States should try to befriend Arab countries, such as the United Arab Emirates (UAE). Imus was referring to the port deal involving a company owned by the government of Dubai -- a member state of the UAE. Severin replied that “the only meaningful gesture” Americans could make in that regard would be to “cut off our own heads right now as a gesture of good faith.”

Severin, a former longtime Republican political consultant, who has worked for the presidential campaigns of George H.W. Bush and Pat Buchanan, has a history of making controversial comments, including a suggestion on how to deal with Muslims in the United States: “I think we should kill them.” Media Matters for America has documented several of Severin's controversial statements.

Referring to the current debate over the port deal, Imus asked Severin: "[S]houldn't our goal be, though, or argue some and maybe even me, to try to make friends with some of these Arab countries and the UAB (sic)?" Severin replied: “I think the only meaningful gesture we might make to them in that regard would be to cut off our own heads right now as a gesture of good faith. Maybe, they would regard that as an act of friendship.”

From the March 1 broadcast of MSNBC's Imus in the Morning:

IMUS: Looking at the next -- oh, I don't know, say, 1,000 years -- wouldn't -- shouldn't our goal be, though, or argue some and maybe even me, to try to make friends with some of these Arab countries and the UAB (sic), while they were fairly creepy before September 11th, have been a fairly good ally since then.

SEVERIN: Well, when I think about --

IMUS: Is there any merit to that argument?

SEVERIN: Well, I guess it depends. If you think about the nature of the religious fervor that guides and drives them, I think the only meaningful gesture we might make to them in that regard would be to cut off our own heads right now as a gesture of good faith. Maybe, they would regard that as an act of friendship.