WAUSAU – U.S. Rep. Sean Duffy continues to embarrass Wisconsin on a national level. Duffy, a Republican from Wausau, went on national television claiming that a terrorist attack by a white extremist was a rare event. Duffy was referring to the shooting at a mosque in Quebec, Canada that left six people dead and 17 others injured.
The gunman who carried out the attack has been identified as a white male who has expressed anti-immigrant viewpoints.
This comes as President Trump enacted an Executive Order banning travel on immigrants from seven Muslim-majority countries.
In the cable news interview with CNN anchor Alisyn Camerota, Duffy said “there is a difference” between the type of terrorist attack at the mosque (white supremacist) and those motivated by the Islamic State.
The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that Duffy said, “You don’t have a group like ISIS or Al-Qaeda that’s inspiring people around the world to take up arms and kill innocents.”
This comment came off as insensitive to many in his home district, people throughout Wisconsin and to those around the country. Particularly those familiar and close to those in the Sikh Temple shooting in Oak Creek, Wisconsin in August 2015. A gunman, identified as a white supremacist shot into temple killing six people before turning the gun on himself. Nationally, Duffy’s comments sounded insensitive, too. The shooter who killed nine people in June 2015 inside of a church in Charleston, South Carolina identified as a white supremacist, he, Dylann Roof was recently sentenced to death.
For more on Duffy’s comments and local reaction, visit Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
