Quotables

‘Let’s teach them a lesson if they ever show up here.’

Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr., after the terrorist attacks in Paris and in San Bernardino, Calif., urging students at a Dec. 4 convocation to carry concealed weapons on campus.

‘God isn’t fixing this.’

A front-page headline in the New York Daily News after Muslim terrorists killed 14 in San Bernardino, Calif. The headline was in response to politicians who had offered prayers following the attack. The paper argued politicians should instead focus on gun control.

‘I welcome the engagement of the Justice Department.’

Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel on Dec. 4, one day after calling a civil rights probe into the fatal police shooting of Laquan McDonald “misguided.” In between the comments, Hillary Clinton called for an investigation. The Justice Department said it would investigate the shooting, including why the city delayed release of dashcam footage in which McDonald, a black 17-year-old, did not appear to be a threat to the officer who shot him.

‘An unprecedented mobilization.’

Lorenzo Vidino, director of George Washington University’s Program on Extremism, on the growth in support for ISIS within the United States. A December report by Vidino and Seamus Hughes found that 250 Americans have traveled or attempted to travel to Iraq or Syria to join ISIS and that U.S. authorities have 900 active investigations of suspected ISIS sympathizers in the United States.

‘Nobody can sit here today, particularly given the amount of intelligence the White House got, and say, “We didn’t know this was a problem.” Give me a break.’

Retired Lt. Gen. Michael Flynn, director of the Defense Intelligence Agency from 2012 to 2014, on the rise of ISIS.