Conservative commentator Patrick Buchanan told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday that he questioned "the mindset of the president right now" because he has lashed out at Republicans calling for barring Syrian refugees instead of expressing outrage over the Paris attacks.
"He didn't really show what he should have shown, which was American leadership in the time of a real crisis for our ally in France," Buchanan told "The Steve Malzberg Show," referring to President Barack Obama's remarks Wednesday in the Philippines. "He really seems to be letting Republican criticism get to him.
"The president has not handled this at all well, there's no question about it," Buchanan added. "This was a massacre, a perpetrated massacre, the largest hit on France militarily, lost more casualties than any single incident since World War II.
"He's focusing on the Republican Party — and he's calling it a setback in the war on terror. You have to ask yourself about the mindset of the president right now."
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Buchanan, who served Presidents Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and Gerald Ford, told Malzberg that he would halt all immigration into the United States and would ban anyone from Muslim countries with deep terrorist ties.
"We know that the Christians in Syria have been persecuted and attacked and singled out as like the Yazidis have — and if you're going to bring in folks from Syria, you ought to give first priority to those who you know really can't survive a victory by ISIS."
Buchanan also slammed Secretary of State John Kerry for his controversial comparison of the Paris attacks to the assault on the satirical French newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January.
"I'm not a fan of Charlie Hebdo and their cartoons, but that does not justify mass murder," he said. "John Kerry is very tired and there's nothing legitimate about mass murder or terrorism against innocent civilians — I don't care whether they write nasty cartoons or not."