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Tancredo Still Believes In Bombing Mecca And Medina

Three years ago, Tom Tancredo — who, at the time, was a Republican congressman from Colorado and is now the American Constitution Party’s nominee for governor of that state — made the shocking claim that he would like to bomb the Muslim holy sites in Mecca and Medina. “If it is up to me, we are going to explain that an attack on this homeland of that nature would be followed by an attack on the holy sites in Mecca and Medina,” Tancredo told an Iowa conservative group. “Because that is the only thing I can think of that might deter somebody from doing what they would otherwise do.”

Tancredo’s comments were roundly denounced, even by members of his own party. “Historically, we’ve tried to avoid doing what the Nazis did, and that’s bombing every kind of possible target. … There are some things that are off limits,” Mike Huckabee said at the time. The State Department also slammed Tancredo, saying his comments were “reprehensible” and “absolutely crazy.”

At one point, Tancredo tried to pretend he never suggested bombing Mecca and Medina, telling CNN that it was “absolutely untrue” that he ever said such a thing. Now, however, Tancredo admits he said it, and that he still believes it. During an interview with a local radio station Thursday, when asked if he still believed in bombing Mecca, Tancredo said he did and that it was “quite defensible”:

HOST: If you say, you get involved with talking about bombing Mecca and Medina, is it possible that there would be a fatwa on Colorado?

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TANCREDO: You guys, remember, the statement that I made, in the context in which it was made, I think is quite defensible. I still do, and I still would say it. It is just that I would have absolutely no reason to say it as the governor of the state of Colorado. There are a lot of other issues of which I would become involved. So it is kind of goofy to say, ‘What if he said something like that again?’ Well, you know, the fact is that there is a lot of people who, just as you say, are worried about these issues. But if they are not relevant to the state of Colorado, I am probably not going to be talking about it.

Listen here:

When Tancredo began his third-party run for governor, Colorado GOP chairman Dick Wadhams wondered whether Tancredo would run on a platform of “impeach Obama and bomb Mecca.” Tancredo has already written an op-ed calling for the president’s impeachment, and now the second half of Wadham’s hypothetical has come true.

(HT: Colorado Independent)