It’s one of the ugliest things to come out of last week’s attack on Paris: Governors and GOP presidential candidates refusing Syrian refugees entry into their states, out of fear that terrorists might be hiding among their ranks. Not only is this rhetoric based on ISIS lies and fundamentally illegal, but it’s also morally reprehensible, as The Nightly Show’s Larry Wilmore laid out last night.
Wilmore nailed both Gov. Chris Christie for “coming out hard” against Syrian orphans younger than 5 years old and Mike Huckabee for questioning the ability of Middle Eastern refugees to survive the freezing cold temperatures of Minnesota.
“Are you kidding me, Mike Huckabee? You think these desert savages can’t possibly understand the concept of coats?” Wilmore asked. “I saw my loved ones die and then risked my life on an overcrowded raft, where I was forced to drink my own piss, all to escape ISIS in Syria—but St. Paul’s a little nippy.”
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The host found more to enjoy in President Obama’s uncharacteristically harsh response to this type of anti-refugee rhetoric. “If folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan,” Obama demanded, to which Wilmore responded, “The only way that could have gotten blacker is if Obama said ‘motherfuckers’ instead of ‘folks.’”
“We’re supposed to be better than this. That’s the whole point of this country,” Wilmore said, turning more serious. He recalled an incident in 1939 when the U.S. government turned away a boat of Jewish refugee children who were trying to escape Hitler’s Germany: “Not our proudest moment.”
“Look, we can help these refugees and be safe, as well,” Wilmore concluded. “Besides, it’s the Christian thing.”
