President Donald Trump leveled a scathing assessment of a liberal writer who argued that he had radicalized more people than ISIS.

During an interview with Fox News’ Laura Ingraham, Trump slammed GQ correspondent Julia Ioffe, who had made the comments on a CNN panel earlier.

Ioffe “must be some kind of a sick woman,” the president said Monday.

Although she later apologized for her remarks, Ioffe – who was joined on CNN’s “The Lead With Jake Tapper” on Monday by David Urban, Symone Sanders and Mona Charen –  sparked a heated debate when she claimed Trump has “radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did.”

Ioffe made her controversial comparison in her attempt to connect Trump’s rhetoric to the mass shooting this past weekend at a Pittsburgh synagogue which claimed 11 lives.

“I think this president, one of the things that he really launched his presidential run on is talking about Islamic radicalization. And this president has radicalized so many more people than ISIS ever did. I mean, the way he talks, the way he — the way he –”

“That’s just unconscionable for you to say that,” conservative panelist David Urban interrupted.

Ioffe continued to make her point.

“The way he winks and nods to these groups,” she said. “The way he says, ‘I know I’m not supposed to say it, but I’m a nationalist.’ The way that he hems and haws when he has to condemn these people and kind of, gritting his teeth, says, ‘Fine, okay, I condemn this.’”

But Urban was not about to let her slanderous words go unchallenged.

“Hold on. For you not to push back on that,” he addressed CNN host Jake Tapper,  “for her to say, the President of the United States has radicalized more people than ISIS is irresponsible.”

“Okay. You disagree with it,” Tapper replied as he sought Charen’s perspective.

“It’s not true. Based upon what? How many camps have you gone into and interrogated ISIS folks? Do you know? What do you base it upon?” Urban pressed Ioffe.

“ISIS had like 10,000 members. I think the President has far more supporters who espouse an equally hateful ideology,” she said, standing by her comments.

After a continued heated discussion, Ioffe later apologized for her comment.

“I think I spoke in the heat of the moment.” she said. “This has been a very emotional and personally painful time for me. I think I exaggerated and I apologize for that.”

Just as New York Times columnist Paul Krugman pointed a finger at Trump following the deadly synagogue shooting, Ioffe openly blamed the president just hours after it happened, tweeting that “This president makes this possible. Here.”

And a word to my fellow American Jews: This president makes this possible. Here. Where you live. I hope the embassy move over there, where you don’t live was worth it.

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 27, 2018

Ioffe was fired from Politico in 2016 after her disgusting tweet suggesting that Trump was having sex with his daughter, Ivanka Trump.

On Monday, she offered another apology on Twitter for her remarks earlier in the day on CNN.

I clarified and apologized on air, but I’ll say it again here. This has been a very emotional and painful time, but I absolutely should not have gone with such hyperbole on the air. I apologize.

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 29, 2018

But she still had to get in one last word.

I will add, though, that it is not a coincidence that the number of anti-Semitic attacks has jumped nearly 60% in 2017—the biggest one-year increase in recent history—while this administration has systematically pulled back resources from countering domestic extremism.

— Julia Ioffe (@juliaioffe) October 29, 2018

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Frieda Powers

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Frieda@bizpacreview.com

Originally from New York, Powers graduated from New York University and eventually made her way to sunny South Florida where she has been writing for the BizPacReview team since 2015.

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