Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.) had a quixotic reaction to the capture of Ahman Khan Rahami, the 28-year-old suspect wanted in connection with an explosion Saturday night in New York City. The freshman congressman, who represents New York’s 1st Congressional District, addressed San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick in an apparently sarcastic tweet on Monday, which read “Suspect in custody. You are welcome Colin Kaepernick.” Over the last few weeks, Kaepernick had refused to stand during the national anthem in order to protest racial bias in policing and police brutality.
Asked to comment on his tweet, which raised controversy throughout the Internet, Zeldin told NBC News that his tweet reflected “the way many Americans feel about the quarterback” at this time. “I’m not going to stand here and claim that I’m more of a patriot than millions of other Americans,” Zeldin said. “But you better believe I am going to stand here and proudly say that I am most definitely more of a patriot than Colin Kaepernick. I served in Iraq in 2006 and I know full well the trials patriotism can be put through, I’ve seen them with my own eyes. And that doesn’t change a thing.”
Zeldin also argued that the 49ers quarterback “invited” Muslim terrorists back into the United States after “decades of peace.” “And although he’ll never admit it and will probably try to hide behind his racial bias agenda or whatever, the fact to the matter is that we are experiencing these terrorist acts and bombings on American soil solely because of what he’s done,” the New York congressman added. “He has singlehandedly destroyed the peace we have kept since World War II, so if you ask me about my tweet, I’ll tell you that it was the least I could do to warn the public about him and to let him know we know what he’s done.”
“And the American public is being blindfolded into thinking he’s protesting over police brutality or whatever it is he wants us to think, the Democrats made sure of that,” Zeldin also said. “But the fact to the matter is, his so-called ‘protests’ were carefully designed to send a message to all the Muslim terrorists in the world. And that message was clear: ‘Brothers, now is the time. I am kneeling here in defiance of the infidels’ laws and their freedom. Now is the time to strike so I invite you to come to me and ignite the eternal fire of Jihad on their soil once more.’ I mean, a loose translation was the best I could do here, but you get the idea.”
“And what happens when you invite Muslims anywhere? The same thing that always does – they virtually relocate their entire population to your country. They’re like locusts, they plague whatever area they visit, destroy all the food and natural resources, then move on and leave a wasteland behind. One look at the Middle East and you’ll know what I’m talking about. And now with this so-called migrant crisis, it’s obvious that’s exactly what it is, a plague of Biblical proportions. And they’re all headed here because one of our own sent out the invitation. Or rather, he used to be one of our own. In reality, he was a closeted Muslim, an anchor that served as bridge for all of his inbred terrorist brothers and sisters and their famed Sharia law,” Zeldin concluded.
