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'9/11 used as political ploy'
20/09/2004 13:56 - (SA)
Washington - United States Democrats were up in arms over comments by a top Republican lawmaker suggesting that al-Qaeda would prefer to see Democrat John Kerry in the White House.
"It is disgraceful. There should have no room for this in our political discourse," Democratic National Committee chairman Terry McAuliffe said on CNN late on Sunday.
Kerry's running mate Senator John Edwards said Dennis Hastert, the top Republican in the House of Representatives, was trying to influence US voters with fear, and likened the comments to one made by Vice President Dick Cheney two weeks earlier.
"Let me say this in the simplest possible terms: when John Kerry is President of the United States, we will find al-Qaeda where they are and crush them before they can do damage to the American people," Edwards said on Sunday.
'Cheap ploy'
"Over and over, this president and his cronies have taken one of our nation's greatest tragedies and used it as part of a cheap political ploy," Edwards said in a reference to the September 11 terror attacks.
At a fundraiser in Illinois Saturday, Hastert said al-Qaeda would seek to influence the November 2 election and added: "I would think that they would be more apt to go with somebody who would file a lawsuit with a world court or something rather than respond with troops."
Asked if he thought al-Qaeda would prefer to see Kerry in the White House, he said: "That's my opinion, yes."
The comments called to mind those made earlier this month by Cheney who said: "It's absolutely essential that eight weeks from today on November 2 we make the right choice, because if we make the wrong choice then the danger is that we'll get hit again."
He later clarified the remark, saying what he was trying to convey was that Bush would pursue more effective anti-terrorism policies than his Democratic opponent.
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