CNN host Ashleigh Banfield equated Jewish terrorists with Islamic terrorists.  On air.  With a straight face.

Her guest was Jeffrey Lord, who had the patience of a saint.  Banfield repeatedly interrupted him in order to make her case, as if having a guest was secondary to the main point of the host being heard.  And she spoke to him in an incredibly patronizing way, managing to sound like a child who knows more than and better than someone as intelligent and distinguished as Lord.

Here’s how part of the exchange went down.  (Of note, right from the get-go, you knew it was going to be a set-up, whereby Banfield would play the role of the innocent, whilst she had unearthed some obscure information to be brought forth at just the right, “Ah-ha, you see!” moment.  And, indeed, that is how it unfolded.)

AB: You know, I gotta ask you. Someone was so clever this morning, Jeffrey. If you supplant the word “Jews” for “Muslims” in a lot of the rhetoric that that we’ve had this morning, I think people would find it sort of cringe-worthy and reminiscent of a really ugly time in our history. Imagine a customs and border patrol agent, Jeffrey, asking someone “Are you a Jew?” How would that go over?

Banfield is unaware or pretending to be unaware that jihadists frequently question the religion of their targets, releasing Muslims and then slaughtering Christians and Jews.  “Are you a Jew?” is understood every day around the world, and particularly in Israel.  An answer in the affirmative will get you killed.

JL: Well, Ashley, look, first of all, there are no Jews that are coming in here to destroy America. They’re coming in here to get away from these people.

AB: Okaaay.

AB: I mean, we have a problem, and saying that we don’t have a problem is suicidal. It brought death to these Americans in California.

Drum roll.  Prepare for Banfield’s revelation of what she was champing at the bit to talk about all along.

AB: Yeah. I gotta, I gotta. You know what? I’m going to tell ya’ something. There’s a guy named John Pistole, who just recently was running the TSA. Uh, real venerable guy. He, before that was with the FBI. He was an executive assistant director for counter terror and counter intelligence and he sat before Congress in 2004 and he testified – and this is to your point about there are no Jews coming to hurt Americans – he testified about, from a period of 1980 to 1985 there were 18 terrorist attacks in the United States committed by Jews. Fifteen of them by members of the Jewish Defense League. The head of the Jewish Defense League was in jail awaiting trial on charges of trying to bomb a mosque in Culver City, trying to bomb Darrell Issa’s office, an Arab American. What are you talking about?! There have been Jewish terrorist attacks! Should we therefore ask no Jews to please apply for a visa?

JL:  Ashley, are you really saying to me that there is an international Jewish conspiracy to take over the world?  I mean, which, radical --

AB: I’m telling you (holds up piece of paper with highlighted information about Jewish terrorism) that there have been that many terrorist attacks committed by Jews and no one’s suggesting for a minute that all Jews should be wiped out of this country from visiting. (Bizarre, disingenuous, grin accompanied by a childish and patronizing tone of voice.) It’s the same thing.

JL: (After repeated attempts to interrupt her seemingly endless ridiculous rant.) No it is not the same thing, Ashley. The motive here is to set up a caliphate to remake the entire world in the image of radical Islam. That’s what’s going on --

AB: The crazies, yes! Not the Muslims! The crazies!

JL: (Attempts to speak, but is talked over.)

AB: There are 1.5 or 1.6 billion Muslims and the majority are not crazy like that. The majority are like everybody.

And on it went.

There is so much one could say about that exchange.  None of it good.  Most of it speaks for itself.

I will simply address Banfield’s final assertion (that she plucked out of thin air) by sharing this video by Ben Shapiro called “The Myth of the Tiny Radical Muslim Minority.”

It’s amazing how much madness leftists can be packed into less than 3 minutes.

Hat tip: The Right Scoop