President-elect Donald Trump was too quick to blame "radical Islamic terrorist[s]" for recent killings in Germany and Turkey, according to Sen. Angus King, I-Maine.
"Simple answers to complicated questions are usually wrong," King told CNN's "New Day."
"In this case, it appears that, No. 1, we don't really know the facts, so it's premature to come to a conclusion, but No. 2, it appears that the attack in Turkey on the Russian ambassador wasn't a religious attack but was a political one, revenge for what's going on in Aleppo."
On Monday, the Russian Ambassador to Turkey Andrey Karlov was killed by a Turkish gunman who yelled "don't forget Aleppo, don't forget Syria," and "God is good."
A separate attack occurred in Berlin. German Chancellor Angela Merkel told reporters Tuesday that "we must assume at the current time that it was a terrorist attack," according to The New York Times.
"ISIS and other Islamist terrorists continually slaughter Christians in their communities and places of worship as part of their global jihad," Trump said in a statement, The Hill reports.
King claims Trump accepted that explanation too quickly.
"Just to say it's all Islamic terrorism I think is, A, not the correct answer," he said, "and B, will only inflame tensions and could conceivably make them worse."
According to the senator, the bigger question is: "do we really want to have a war of half the world against the other half the world?
"Most of the tips and the help that we get in dealing with these problems and thwarting these problems here in the U.S. come from people within the Muslim community," he added.
"Do we really want to radicalize all of those people? ... I just don't think it's in our best interest."
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