Gorka Explains Use of Term ‘Radical Islamic Terrorism’ to MSNBC: You Don’t Call Cancer the Flu

Dr. Sebastian Gorka, White House deputy advisor on national security, was questioned Tuesday on MSNBC about his insistence on the use of the term “radical Islamic terrorism.”

“I don’t understand how calling it by its name helps stop the attacks in Paris or in Belgium or in London,” MSNBC’s Ali Velshi said to Gorka.

"So If you, God forbid, caught cancer, and the hospital was forbidden from calling it cancer and said, 'you have the flu, go home and hydrate and some take aspirins,' would you actually have the right treatment?" Gorka asked.

"No, but there's still no cure for cancer," MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle replied.

"Have you not heard of chemo?" Gorka asked.

"I have heard of chemo, and cancer can still kill you, so it doesn't matter what you call it," Ruhle rejoined.

"Doesn't matter what you call it, really?” Gorka replied. “So if I call it the flu, and say go home and take some aspirin, what's going to happen?"

“There must be a better response to that, right?” Velshi said. “I asked you a very straightforward question.”

"I gave you a very simple answer," Gorka responded. "If you misdiagnose anything, whether it's a serious disease or international geopolitical threat, you will never solve it.”

“For the last eight years we had an administration that said oh it’s economic, oh these people are disenfranchised,” he added. “Look it’s not about economics, it’s not about being disenfranchised, it’s about people who have an ideology that is evil and has to be destroyed."

Velshi then asked about stopping "lone-wolf" attacks perpetrated by individuals rather than by groups like ISIS.

"There's no such thing as a lone wolf. You do know that?" Gorka responded. "That was a phrase invented by the last administration to make Americans stupid. There has never been — never been — a serious attack ... or a serious plot that was unconnected from ISIS or Al Qaeda, at least through the ideology and the TTPs — the tactics, the training, the techniques, and the procedures — that they supply through the internet. Never happened. It's bogus."