Efforts to seek political gain from the botched Christmas Day terrorist attack have resulted in plenty of hyperbole. And GOP Senatorial Candidate Jane Norton didn't disappoint in that regard when delivering remarks on the incident to a room full of Colorado voters on Monday.
The former lieutenant governor, appearing at the Jefferson County Men's Club, accused President Barack Obama of being more concerned with the rights of terrorists that with the lives of Americans. Not just as it pertained to matters of national security -- but as seen in the health care bill and "almost every, every area that we are looking at."
The full quote is below (pulled from video posted by the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee):
"[Abdul Mutallab] should have been identified as an enemy combatant and gone through military tribunal. Now he goes though, with all the constitutional protections, our criminal process. We are letting people go from Gitmo without a good plan of what to do when we close down Gitmo. We are returning guys to Yemen who then plot against us. And what I believe is happening... is the fact that the rights of terrorists are more important in this administration that the lives of American citizens. And we are seeing it in the criminal field. We are seeing it in the health care bill. We are seeing it in almost every, every area that we are looking at."
There is much to dispute in Norton's statement. Like Obama, President George W. Bush tried Richard Reid -- the infamous shoe bomber -- in civilian court. It was the Bush administration, likewise, that pushed for the closure of Gitmo and transferred to Yemen the detainee who then subsequently helped train the Christmas Day would-be bomber. And there is literally nothing in the health care bill that even remotely touches on terrorism or terrorists' rights.