Why Is Bob Corker Refusing To List the Muslim Brotherhood As A Terrorist Organization?

Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, speaks to reporters in the Senate subway at the Capitol in Washington, Thursday, July 31, 2014. As the U.S. Congress staggered toward a five-week summer break Thursday, it appeared legislation to send Israel millions of dollars for its Iron Dome missile defense system might pass. But an expected stand-alone bill to provide the funds had yet to be made public late in the day. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)

Back in November, Texas Senator Ted Cruz offered a bill to require the State Department to list the Muslim Brotherhood as a terrorist group or explain why not:

Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) is trying to force the Obama administration’s hand to label the Muslim Brotherhood as a foreign terrorist organization.

Along with Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart (R-Fla.), the presidential hopeful on Tuesday introduced legislation calling on the Obama administration to designate the Islamist political group as a foreign terrorist organization.

The bill, called the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, comes after a string of evidence suggesting the group supports terrorism, Cruz said, and after similar moves from a handful of foreign countries in recent years.

“As this bill details, the Brotherhood’s stated goal is to wage violent jihad against its enemies, and our legislation is a reality check that the United States is on that list as well,” Cruz said in a statement Wednesday.

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This is commonsense. Most of the Muslim world considers the Muslim Brotherhood to be a terrorist group. If you have doubts of their bona fides just look at their actions. The Muslim Brotherhood, when Hillary Clinton put them into power in Egypt, collaborated with ISIS.

But nothing has happened

Eighty members of Congress, including two Democrats, now support the Muslim Brotherhood Terrorist Designation Act, with one more congressman and a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee signing up since the last update. There’s only one problem: The Republican leadership is stalling it, even though the House version passed the Judiciary Committee.

The two new cosponsors are Senator David Perdue (R-GA) and Rep. Tom Marino (R-PA). The former is especially significant because he is a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee where it is held up. A list of cosponsors and opponents is available at the bottom of this article.

Terrorism expert Patrick Poole writes that the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Bob Corker (R-TN), has not even held hearings on the bill, much less arranged for it to be voted on. Corker is reportedly being vetted as a potential running mate for Donald Trump.

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This is a no-brainer. Both former FBI Director Robert Mueller and Director of National Intelligence James Clapper have testified to the Muslim Brotherhood’s terrorist nature. It is an action without any political downside for the GOP. Will the Democrats filibuster the bill? Doubtful. It will put Obama and his State Department in the position of virtually outlawing his pet groups like Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) and the North American Islamic Trust (NAIT), which are demonstrably Muslim Brotherhood front groups and egregious apologists for terrorism. Unlike all the fake gun control debate after Orlando, this bill might actually save American lives.

But Bob Corker, the man who wants to be Donald Trump’s vice president, is refusing to act on a bill that would not only be useful but that would cause Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama a great deal of discomfort.

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