During a discussion with Iowa Senator Joni Ernst (R) on "Fox & Friends" Wednesday morning, co-host Elisabeth Hasselbeck proposed turning away those fleeing murderous regimes, but doing so in a way that indicated our "good-hearted nature" -- as if that somehow mitigated the humanitarian failing at the heart of Republican opposition to the president's plans to admit 10,000 Syrian refugees.
Ernst was one of six senators to sign a letter urging President Barack Obama to institute a "pause" on allowing the Syrian refugees into the United States, claiming that the vetting process is "insufficiently thorough."
Hasselbeck noted that voicing opposition to the president's plan is likely to earn you label of "bigot," because "basically, people are saying 'You're a bigot if you're classifying these people and not letting them in.'"
"Why would the president not echo your sentiments in saying that?” she asked the senator. “Why would the person in the highest position in charge of keeping our nation the most safe, at the very least accept a 'pause' as this time -- with the good-hearted nature that, of course, as a nation we want to accept refugees, because they’re not all bad."
Part of the reason, of course, was articulated by Ernst herself, who said that "a 'pause' could be indefinite" -- i.e. not a "pause" at all, but a "stop." But that's not why she believes the president is unwilling to "pause."
"We are a welcoming nation," she said, "but when we put our own lives at risk on our homeland, that’s where we differ, [and] for the president to take a 'pause,' he would then be admitting that he has failed in the Middle East, that he has not destroyed ISIS"
Watch the entire segment below via Fox News.
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