State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf drew attention to Joseph Kony’s “Christian militant” group Wednesday when discussing the threat posed by extremist groups around the globe.
During a interview on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” on Wednesday, Ms. Hart talked about the need for U.S. to enlist allies in its ongoing counterterrorism efforts. She then referenced the African warlord Joseph Kony.
“We have over 60 countries from around the world who are facing a number of different kinds of extremist threats. … If you at the Lord Resistance Army and Kony — Joseph Kony — I don’t remember people talking about that as much anymore, but that’s a Christian militant group. So there are a lot of different extremist threats we face and a lot of tools to go after each one of them,” said the spokeswoman, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
Ms. Harf’s comments come just two days after she told MSNBC host Chris Matthews that one of the ways the U.S. could combat terrorist groups like the Islamic State group is to focus on improving job prospects in the region.
“We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s a lack of opportunity for jobs, whether —” Ms. Harf said before being cut off by the host.
“We’re not going to be able to stop that in our lifetime or 50 lifetimes. There’s always going to be poor people,” Mr. Matthews replied.
SEE ALSO: Marie Harf doubles down on jobs-for-terrorists: Maybe view ‘too nuanced’ for some
After Ms. Harf’s comments went viral online, she stood by her words during an appearance on CNN.
“Look, it might be too nuanced of an argument for some like I’ve seen over the past 24 hours some of the commentary out but it’s really the smart way for Democrats, for Republicans, military commanders, our partners in the Arab world think we need to combat it,” Ms. Harf told CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Tuesday.
• Douglas Ernst can be reached at dernst@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.