Jake Tapper grilled White House Deputy Nationwide Safety Advisor Tony Blinken these days over the notion that President Obama underestimated the specter of ISIS, citing particularly a quote during which Obama when put next ISIS and different al-Qaeda groups to junior varsity teams sporting Lakers uniforms.

Tapper said that “for months and months” folks had warned concerning the threat ISIS posed “with out a action, no severe motion, by means of the White Home.” He requested, “Was once the intelligence not there? Why is it best now that you’re performing?”

Blinken argued they’ve been “concerned about this for well over a yr,” they usually had been working with Iraqis to take care of AQI and ultimately ISIS before “the ISIS threat overtook the efforts that the Iraqis were making to maintain it.”

Tapper then requested, “Just how badly did President Obama underestimate the specter of ISIS?” Blinken defended Obama and mentioned that there are groups in the market, like ISIS, that aren’t taken with attacking the US and so subsequently are not as large a risk as core al-Qaeda can be.

Watch the phase beneath, via CNN:

[h/t Twitchy]
[image by means of screengrab]

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Follow Josh Feldman on Twitter: @feldmaniac