The Danger of Political Correctness

Congressman Tom Marino of Pennsylvania was a guest on Secure Freedom Radio with Frank Gaffney this week. Marino is a member of the House Foreign Affairs and Homeland Security Committees. He is also a supporter of Donald Trump for president.

Marino offered some reasons why he’s backing the presumptive Republican nominee:

“It boils down to this. No matter where I go in the United States, I’m a surrogate for Donald Trump, I’m his chair in Pennsylvania, I want to make it clear, there were two other congressmen who came out two days before I endorsed Trump, I was planning on doing it but we were waiting for a particular time but those two congressmen had endorsed others. I am the only congressman to endorse Trump first, he was my first, first choice. So I want to make that distinction.”

“But Frank, this boils down to one issue and I hate to simplify it the way I’m going to but it is the issue we go back to on everything that is happening in this country. We have an inept president. He doesn’t care, he doesn’t know how to handle matters. He thinks he’s a rock star and he’s too busy going on reality shows and singing and dancing and really is lost. He’s in so far over his head, he’s caused so much of a problem for this country and for the next president that I have reservations about where we are going to be in the next two years because of the damage that he has caused in the country and around the world. He just doesn’t know what to do and he doesn’t care. In my opinion, he doesn’t have our interests as a first priority.”

Gaffney asked Marino for his thoughts on combating radical Islam and what he thought of the distinctions between fighting the advance of Islamic supremacy versus calling it violent extremism as President Obama prefers to do. Marino responded:

“First of all, I couldn’t agree with you more but I’m not worried about hurting someone’s feelings. I know a handful of people who practice, Muslims who practice Islam and I have great respect for them. But let me put it this way – when I was a prosecutor, I went after organized crime, I went after the mafia and I wasn’t offended when people talk about they don’t like the mafia, I don’t like the mafia, I detest the mafia and it didn’t insult me and I wasn’t hurt. So this idea of because we’re talking about radical Islamic extremists or terrorists, whatever word you want to use… Why should we, first of all, be concerned if it offends someone who is practicing Islam if they’re a peaceful individual? So I don’t have a problem with calling it what it is. President Obama does have a problem with it and he’s had a problem with it for what reason I’m not quite sure but that’s one of the reasons I’m a Trump guy. Donald is not worried about being politically correct and neither am I.”

Finally, Gaffney asked Marino if he believed that political correctness has hamstrung law enforcement agencies and even our military. Marino agreed:

“Look, I’m a law enforcement guy, I’ve been a law enforcement guy for eighteen years, I’ll be a law enforcement guy until the day I die and I still have communications with FBI guys, DEA, Secret Service, those guys, and they’re so frustrated because their hands are tied. We have such a low threshold that stops us from getting down into the marrow, into the root of doing an investigation because this is what this president has dictated to Justice and we don’t have an attorney general, we haven’t had one in almost eight years with a backbone.”

Marino suggests that many law enforcement agents fear fines and even prosecution if they go beyond the parameters set forth by the administration.

“They can’t do what they’re supposed to do because this president doesn’t care or has other intentions.”