Watch Barack Obama take a stand against a religious test for refugees

“It was more than a little rich that President Obama attacks the Republican candidates, saying they’re scared to answer questions from reporters, this, by the way, from a president who is nearly exclusively interviewed by left-leaning reporters and doesn’t take hard questions”. “I can not think of a more potent recruitment tool for ISIL than a few of the rhetoric coming out here in the course of this debate”, said Obama at a press conference in the Phillippines Wednesday morning. “That’s not American”, Obama said, raising his voice and clearly agitated. (Cruz suggests giving refugees a “test.”) But we’re living in the age of the conservative movement’s final transition into William F. Buckley’s worst nightmare, so Cruz’s thoughts no doubt echo the idiot rabble he represents, the shrieking loons who’ve successfully wrested conservatism away from the at least intelligent and well-meaning people who once adhered to its beliefs.

“If there were a group of radical Christians pledging to murder anyone who had a different religious view than they, we would have a different national security situation”, the Texas Senator said at an event in SC on Sunday, CBS News reports.

“If you want to insult me, you can do it overseas, you can do it in Turkey, you can do it in foreign countries, but I would encourage you, mister president, come back and insult me to my face”, Cruz said on Capitol Hill.

But the Syrian refugee crisis is dividing American politicians, given the choice between yielding to fears of importing terrorists or honoring the United States’ traditional welcoming role. “I want to go everywhere, all the time, and campaign for this man for president of the United States”. “It’s easy to toss a cheap insult when no one can respond, but let’s have a debate”.

A few advocates were particularly shocked when Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie, New Jersey’s governor, said that the US should bar Syrian orphaned toddlers if necessary.

Ted Cruz is so tough, so manly (is the message Republican voters are supposed to take from this, even as his policy ideas continue to be all about being afraid of victims of terror and war). The Texas Senator and GOP presidential contender grabbed a microphone, looked into a camera, and said, “Come back and insult me to my face”.

“I was very proud after 9/11 when he was adamant and clear that this was not a war against Islam”, Obama said.

Between October 1, 2011, and November 10, the US has taken in 2,131 Syrian refugees, with just over 1,800 of them arriving since the beginning of this January, according to the State Department. “Never before have I seen an American president project such weakness on the global stage”.

The flood of refugees fleeing Islamic State violence in Syria and Iraq has roiled Europe and spurred a debate in the U.S. It was given added urgency when French authorities said one of the terrorists who launched deadly attacks in Paris on Friday may have entered Europe as a refugee via Greece.

At the Robert Mills House and Gardens in Columbia, South Carolina, Bush stressed the United States shouldn’t allow in refugees “if there’s any kind of concern”. And the more we shrink that territory, the less they can pretend that they are somehow a functioning state, and the more it becomes apparent that they are simply a network of killers who are brutalizing local populations.

President Obama delivered his remarks during a meeting with Philippines President Benigno Aquino. The effort was going nowhere when a breakthrough agreement on Syrian chemical weapons made military action moot, much to the relief of Congress.