Krauthammer’s Take: Overshooting on the Travel Ban Is Flipping Public Opinion on Refugees

https://youtube.com/watch?v=FxmfqoXsaYk

Noting that security from terrorism is largely a battle of perception, Charles Krauthammer argued that Donald Trump travel ban has created disruption and made people from the targeted countries appear more sympathetic to Americans:

I think what we are seeing is the kind of Kabuki that we do as a way to make ourselves think that we are safer from terrorism. Anybody who has gone on an airplane and watched as the TSA strip searches 80-year-old grandmothers understands that this is 90 percent psychological and useless. There are a lot of sources of terrorism. Of the whole list, probably at the bottom, is the idea of infiltration from these states. These are seven states, and in 15 years since 9/11, there hasn’t been a single murder of an American by a national of these countries.

I am not against tightening the vetting. We should. But I think it was unnecessary to order an immediate suspension for 90 days, as if there was an imminent threat, that hordes of Yemenis and Somalis were about to board airplanes and attack the United States. That is what caused the disruption. That is what caused the chaos. And that’s what caused those scenes of very innocent-looking people — doctors, students, grandmas — being separated and not allowed into the country, which has hurt the administration’s argument. These people don’t look like terrorists, and the numbers have shown it, the public opinion polls show that, whereas in November, the majority were against the admission of Syrian refugees, that has now flipped. I think it is a direct result of the fact that this is an unnecessary overshoot. Yes, tighten up the vetting. But there was no reason to suspend the visits of people who were already in the air.