Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Saturday that President Barack Obama is heading "the most dangerous national security administration in American history."
"They're totally wrong about the war on terror and they lie about what is going on," he told Uma Pemmaraju on Fox News. "Secretary [John] Kerry suggested that there was justification for the attack on Charlie Hebdo. He said al-Qaida has been degraded, which is not true.
"The president has called ISIS the junior varsity," Gingrich added, referring to the Islamic State. "He said just last week that they have been contained. This administration is out of touch with reality."
Gingrich, the Georgia Republican who served as the House's top Republican from 1995 to 1999, slammed President Obama for its threat to veto legislation passed by the chamber on Thursday that would tighten restrictions on Syrian refugees coming into the United States.
"I don't understand president Obama's thinking or his understanding of reality," he told Pemmaraju. "He was joking the other day about Republicans being afraid of orphans and pregnant women.
"Well, a couple days ago, a young woman was radicalized, blew herself up in Europe trying to kill several policemen. The president doesn't seem to have any understanding of the reality of what we're facing or the fact that it doesn't take many people.
"Eight people in Paris killed 129 and wounded 350," Gingrich said. "It was 10 people in Mali who took control of a hotel.
"You can do a lot of damage with a small number of terrorists."
He urged Republicans to insert language into the upcoming continuing budget resolution barring funds from being used for Syrian refugees.
That would force Obama to veto the resolution, thus shutting down the federal government. A 16-day partial closure in October 2013 cost taxpayers $1.4 billion.
"I don't think the president can close the government on the issue," Gingrich said. "It's already unpopular with the country.
"I don't think that he could sustain an argument that he's prepared to close the entire government just to be able to let more Syrian refugees in."
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