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  1. #1
    Banned GennGreymane's Avatar
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    Trump's ambassador to Netherlands struggles to defend claim Muslims 'burned Politians

    Donald Trump's new ambassador to Netherlands struggles to defend claim Muslims 'burned' Dutch politicians

    http://www.independent.co.uk/news/wo...-a8152761.html

    Peter Hoekstra, the newly minted US ambassador to the Netherlands, held his first conference with the Dutch media at his new residence in the Hague on Wednesday.

    It did not go well.

    Dutch journalists peppered Hoekstra, who became Donald Trump's ambassador after serving 18 years as a Republican congressman from Michigan, with questions on unsubstantiated claims he made in 2015 about the chaos the “Islamic movement” had brought to the Netherlands.

    “There are cars being burned, there are politicians that are being burned,” he had said at a conference hosted by a conservative group. “And yes, there are no-go zones in the Netherlands.”

    The comments have widely been described as inaccurate, and reflect certain conspiracies about sharia law that crop up in some circles of the far-right in the West. When pressed by the Dutch reporters, Hoekstra declined to retract the comments or give specific examples to back them up.

    In fact, after saying that he would be “revisiting the issue,” he simply refused to answer the question at all.

    But the reporters were not done with the line of questioning yet. Instead of moving on, another reporter would simply ask a variation on the question again.

    “Everybody there had one question: that crazy statement you made, are you going to withdraw it?” said Roel Geeraedts, a political reporter at the Dutch television station RTL Nieuws in a phone interview about the event. “We were not getting answers, so we all kept asking it.”

    Geeraedts published a segment with video of the remarkable exchange on social media.

    After at least one person had asked the question, Geeraedts followed up to ask Hoekstra about a John Adams quote - Adams was the United States' first ambassador to Holland - that was mounted right behind the ambassador. Hoekstra said he had read the quote, which expresses Adams' hope that only “honest and wise men ever rule under this roof.”

    “If you're truly an honest and wise man, could you please take back the remark about burned politicians or name the politician that was burned in the Netherlands?” Geeraedts asked.

    An uncomfortable silence followed the question.

    “Thank you,” Hoekstra said, before trying to call on someone else over the clamour of the reporters in the room.

    “Excuse me, I asked you a question,” Geeraedts said.

    Another journalist jumped in.

    “Mr. Ambassador, can you mention any example of a Dutch politician who was burned in recent years?”

    “This is the Netherlands, you have to answer questions,” another reporter said.

    Sherry Keneson-Hall, an embassy counselor who was helping run the news conference, pushed back, asserting that Hoekstra was answering the questions.

    At least one more journalist fired the question off. Reporters had asked the question at least five times.

    “We were all astonished that he didn't want to take back the comment. It was simply untrue, so why not take it back?” said Geeraedts. “It was awkward, to be honest.”

    Hoekstra has been in hot water in the Netherlands for the remarks since he was first confronted by a Dutch journalist, Wouter Zwart, in December. Hoekstra falsely claimed to Zwart that he had never made the remarks and called them “fake news.” Moments later, he denied that he had called them fake news.

    Video of the bizarre exchange, juxtaposed with his “no-go zone” remarks, went viral, and the episode drew a slew of critical headlines in the United States and the Netherlands.

    Hoekstra's silence when faced with reporters' questions on Wednesday drew a similar response.

    “Embarrassing performance from controversial ambassador,” read a web headline at De Telegraaf, one of the country's largest newspapers. “Ambassador Hoekstra lost his way again in The Hague,” read another. “Very uncomfortable meeting between ambassador and journalists,” went RTL Nieuws.

    Hoekstra pointed to the public regrets he had made for the exchange with Zwart on Wednesday. But he did not clarify whether the apology was meant to include the no-go zone comments when asked on Wednesday. At one point, he seemed to indicate that he was most concerned about the interview, not the statements.

    “It is not about my personal views anymore. This is about the views on the policies of the United States of America as directed by this administration,” he said. “One interview is not going to have an impact. The other thing I just want to reinforce, this relationship has been maintained by countless people over the last 400 years, this is not about me.”

    A CNN report published this week documented multiple times Hoekstra had referred to “no-go zones,” in European cities during appearances on conservative media, including talk radio, and a print op-ed, and unearthed other instances where he had given fuel to conspiracy theories about Muslims.

    He speculated that some 10-15 percent of the Muslim community in the world - 270 million people - were radical Islamist militants and appeared to imply that Huma Abedin had “egregious” ties to the Muslim Brotherhood, a claim that The Washington Post's fact-checker Glenn Kessler, and other publications, have determined as “bogus.” On another far-right show, Hoekstra said he had considered the possibly that President Barack Obama might be intentionally aiding the rise of Muslim extremists.

    The State Department did not return a request for comment.

    Geeraedts said he believed that Hoekstra's behaviour confirmed some suspicions the Dutch have about the Trump administration.

    “A lot of Dutch people have seen the press conferences of the White House and seen how some questions are not answered,” he said. “Everybody knows about 'alternative facts.' And this fits that picture.”

    He said that the press corps' unwillingness to let the question go was a spontaneous response, and said he had seen a similar tactic employed on a smaller scale when Dutch politicians gave evasive answers to direct questions. But he said politics in the Netherlands differed a bit from the current situation in the United States.

    “In the Netherlands you don't get a straight up answer, if you ask straight up questions,” he said. “But you hardly get false answers.”

  2. #2
    While the term "burned politicians" doesn't make sense, he is right about the fact that islamists have burned cars and created no-go zones. Then again what do these people expect will happen when you bring in a bunch of violent religious fundamentalists from backwards cultures?

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    Only the best people....version 2.0!

  4. #4
    The Insane Dug's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by modernshaman View Post
    While the term "burned politicians" doesn't make sense, he is right about the fact that islamists have burned cars and created no-go zones. Then again what do these people expect will happen when you bring in a bunch of violent religious fundamentalists from backwards cultures?
    What's up primal

  5. #5
    Quote Originally Posted by modernshaman View Post
    While the term "burned politicians" doesn't make sense, he is right about the fact that islamists have burned cars and created no-go zones. Then again what do these people expect will happen when you bring in a bunch of violent religious fundamentalists from backwards cultures?
    Oh yes, don't you even dare to enter the Muslims girls bedroom without express permission of the girls dad.

    A total no go zone for most guys

  6. #6
    Quote Originally Posted by ati87 View Post
    Oh yes, don't you even dare to enter the Muslims girls bedroom without express permission of the girls dad.

    A total no go zone for most guys
    I'm serious, this is a thing in western europe where you can't even go to certain parts of the city because of muslim gangs.

  7. #7
    Legendary! Vizardlorde's Avatar
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    Weve had 3 threads on this already...
    Quote Originally Posted by Kalis View Post
    MMO-C, where a shill for Putin cares about democracy in the US.

  8. #8
    Quote Originally Posted by Vizardlorde View Post
    Weve had 3 threads on this already...
    This is more recent actually, he was flat out refusing to respond to repeated direct questions from press.

  9. #9
    The Insane draynay's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Dug View Post
    What's up primal
    A seamless return to his apologist ways.

  10. #10
    Banned JohnBrown1917's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by modernshaman View Post
    While the term "burned politicians" doesn't make sense, he is right about the fact that islamists have burned cars and created no-go zones. Then again what do these people expect will happen when you bring in a bunch of violent religious fundamentalists from backwards cultures?
    That is exactly the sort of bullshit he spouts lol

  11. #11
    The Undying Cthulhu 2020's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by modernshaman View Post
    created no-go zones.
    I like how the people who live in these countries have refuted this every time, meanwhile Americans are still lapping it up.
    2014 Gamergate: "If you want games without hyper sexualized female characters and representation, then learn to code!"
    2023: "What's with all these massively successful games with ugly (realistic) women? How could this have happened?!"

  12. #12
    Quote Originally Posted by Butter Emails View Post
    I like how the people who live in these countries have refuted this every time, meanwhile Americans are still lapping it up.
    1. Im not american
    2. If you really think these are bullshit then go do some research. Europeans who live in big cities have made videos about these zones.

  13. #13
    Quote Originally Posted by Butter Emails View Post
    I like how the people who live in these countries have refuted this every time, meanwhile Americans are still lapping it up.
    You call it conspiracy they call it their ideal reality.

  14. #14
    Maybe the guy confused us with Swedistan.

  15. #15
    Quote Originally Posted by Acidz View Post
    Maybe the guy confused us with Swedistan.
    We need an alt-right wiki page so that we can learn about all the places in alternate reality.

    Maybe it would help us understand them better.

  16. #16
    Quote Originally Posted by Xeones View Post
    We need an alt-right wiki page so that we can learn about all the places in alternate reality.

    Maybe it would help us understand them better.
    Here you go. (The glossary isn't too bad either)
    Sweden's page
    Last edited by Shadowmelded; 2018-01-11 at 11:19 PM.

  17. #17
    Quote Originally Posted by modernshaman View Post
    While the term "burned politicians" doesn't make sense, he is right about the fact that islamists have burned cars and created no-go zones. Then again what do these people expect will happen when you bring in a bunch of violent religious fundamentalists from backwards cultures?
    Define and quantify "no go zones".

    - - - Updated - - -

    Quote Originally Posted by Acidz View Post
    Maybe the guy confused us with Swedistan.
    In fairness I'm sure Trump has no idea what the difference is.
    Quote Originally Posted by Tojara View Post
    Look Batman really isn't an accurate source by any means
    Quote Originally Posted by Hooked View Post
    It is a fact, not just something I made up.

  18. #18
    Quote Originally Posted by modernshaman View Post
    Then again what do these people expect will happen when you bring in a bunch of violent religious fundamentalists from backwards cultures?
    Sadly we expect them to lie or avoid questions after expressing their idiotic views thanks to the low quality staff employed by their fake-tanned moron of a president.

  19. #19
    Quote Originally Posted by Butter Emails View Post
    I like how the people who live in these countries have refuted this every time, meanwhile Americans are still lapping it up.
    Well it's more like being surprised that we have to learn the state of our country from a guy living 8000k plus away.

  20. #20
    I do enjoy how he's warning about radical muslims in Europe, while in his country, more people are killed in mass shootings. Europe is safe as fuck compared to the US, heck even if you compare the murder ratio per capita between the US and Sweden, you'd think the US was at war. There are no European "No go" zones. Anecdote; one time where a friend and I had to drop off some trash from a renovation, at a "no go zone" ghetto at 10 pm, we were under attack by several "radical islamists", who asked if they could take some of the stuff we were throwing out, such terror!

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