President Barack Obama insulted American ally Israel by inviting several controversial figures to his White House Countering Violent Extremism Summit, including Muslim Public Affairs Council founder Salam Al-Marayati, Rep. Ryan Zinke told Fox News.
Zinke contrasted the event to House Speaker John Boehner's invitation of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to address Congress next month on the Iran nuclear threat.
"This administration invites a terrorist sympathizer. I think the contrast is clear," Zinke said Wednesday on Fox News Channel's
"On the Record with Greta Van Susteren."
"I'm speechless," Zinke said. "Certainly, this is why our allies don't trust us and our enemies no longer fear us."
Al-Marayati in 2001 said Israel should be on the list of suspects for the 9/11 attacks.
At Tuesday's kickoff, Al-Marayati tweeted out a picture from the event, noting that Vice President Joe Biden was part of the group in which was participating.
Al-Maryati has made numerous controversial statements about Israel and has been accused of being soft on terrorism.
"If this is the kind of outreach partner that President Obama believes cities nationwide should be seeking out, then we’re better off not doing outreach at all, and returning to good old fashion police and intelligence work," Kyle Shideler, director of the Threat Information Office at the Center for Security told
The Washington Free Beacon.
Ben Shapiro at Breitbart.com listed several other figures who attended the summit who have made anti-Israel statements or who have been associated with radical Islam.
Breitbart also noted that guest Nicole Mossalam "has been dishonest about her controversial mosque blocking congregants from giving police information during their investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing."
Attendee Nabeel Khudairi tried to block the Boston media from reporting about the radical nature of New England's largest mosque and persecuted moderate members of his own mosque for trying to warn others about it, Breitbart reported.
Van Susteren told Zinke that the event just appeared to be a giant salon where the big picture and big ideas are discussed while ignoring the reality of terrorism actually happening in the world.
"It's almost like this is sort of a luxury to be able to sort of sit around and talk big picture when the house is burning down," she said.