ISIS Recruits Join Because They ‘Lack Job Opportunities,’ Obama Official Marie Harf Claims

ISIS recruits join the Islamic State because they “lack job opportunities,” according to Obama administration representative Marie Harf. During an interview on MSNBC Hard Ball with Chris Matthew, the State Department spokeswoman made the comments which have drawn severe backlash and have now gone viral.

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf also had this to say about ISIS recruiting and the Obama administration policy on the ongoing terror threat:

“We’re killing a lot of them and we’re going to keep killing more of them. So are the Egyptians, so are the Jordanians. They’re in this fight with us. But we cannot win this war by killing them. We cannot kill our way out of this war. We need in the medium to longer term to go after the root causes that leads people to join these groups, whether it’s lack of opportunity for jobs. We can work with countries around the world to help improve their governance. We can help them build their economies so they can have job opportunities for these people.”

Marie Elizabeth Harf is the deputy spokesperson for the United States Department of State and is also a former spokesperson for the Central Intelligence Agency. Harf worked on the 2012 Obama campaign, according to Wikipedia. Harf is from Granville, Ohio and she graduated from Indiana University Bloomington with Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. She earned an Master’s Degree in Foreign Affairs from University of Virginia.

Harf began reportedly started her career with the federal government as Middle East “leadership issues” analyst at the Directorate of Intelligence at the Central Intelligence. She was later employed as the media spokesperson of the CIA.

Marie Harf reportedly helped “craft” President Obama’s national security and communications strategy, and also served as campaign spokeswoman on national security issues. Two years ago Harf was appointed to the position of U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson under Jen Psaki.

During the exchange with Marie Harf about ISIS recruits lacking job opportunities, MSNBC host Chris Matthews said:

“We’re not going to be able to stop that in our lifetime or 50 lifetimes. There’s always going to be poor people. There’s always going to be poor Muslims, and as long as there are poor Muslims, the trumpet’s blowing and they’ll join. We can’t stop that, can we?”

What do you think about Obama administration spokeswoman Marie Harf’s comments about ISIS?

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