The Chris Cuomo Project - 6 Reasons MAGA’s Islamophobia Will Backfire

Episode Date: August 13, 2026

Chris Cuomo breaks down six reasons MAGA’s increasingly anti-Muslim rhetoric is both politically self-defeating and fundamentally at odds with American values, arguing that legitimate concerns about Islamist extremism are being used to cast suspicion on an entire religion.  Chris examines Nancy Mace’s recent comments about Muslim elected officials, the critical difference between Islam and Islamism, and why collective blame has repeatedly produced some of the ugliest chapters in American history.  He also explains why targeting Muslim Americans could ultimately make the country less safe while handing MAGA’s opponents an opportunity to make a much stronger argument about religious freedom, citizenship, and the Constitution.   Join The Chris Cuomo Project on YouTube for ad-free episodes, early releases, exclusive access to Chris, and more: https://www.youtube.com/@chriscuomo/join Follow and subscribe to The Chris Cuomo Project on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, and YouTube for new episodes every Tuesday and Thursday: https://linktr.ee/cuomoproject Unlock your best hair, skin, and body with @iRestorelaser and HUGE savings on iRESTORE with code CUOMO at https://irestore.com/cuomo ! #irestorepod Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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A few days ago, you wrote, quote, Every single Muslim holding public office in America is a Trojan horse and a threat to both national security and our republic. And then today you essentially added, if not wanting to be blown up, stabbed, or rammed by a car by a radical Islamist in the United States of America makes us Islamophobes, then so be it. Are you saying that anyone who is Muslim is a threat to this country? That's not what I said. And that's not what I said. Number one, I think we do have a real issue with radical Islamic. I mean, it sounds like that's what you're saying.

No, I was talking about elected officials. When you look at what has just happened. So any Muslim elected officials, sorry to cut you off, but just to be clear, any elected Muslim officials. Omdani campaigned with an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. You have Abdul Al-Said, who was campaigning with Hassan Piker, who said America deserved 9-11. And yes, we should be very concerned about... He said he regretted those comments, by taking your point. But that believe in this radical Islam ideology where women are covered head to toe.

It's very oppressive where we've seen grooming gangs over in Europe. But Congresswoman, there's no indication that Mayor Mamdani has brought any of those ideals to New York City governance or that just being Muslim allows you, brings those in. If you're playing footsie with an imam... here in America, who's an unindicted co-conspirator of the 1993 World Trade Center bombings. Yeah, we have a real problem with that kind of ideology. But Congresswoman, when you make a blanket statement like that, it implies that every Muslim member of Congress or leadership, folks who, by the way, are elected by American citizens.

I am deeply concerned about Michigan Democrats nominating a guy hanging out with Asan Piker, who said America deserve 9-11, who has a framed photo of the Twin Towers. to and says he regrets those comments, but yes, keep going. Yeah, but I mean, this is who he's hanging out with. I've heard enough. This is a death sentence for MAGA. They are going all in on extreme thinking, and this is the most dangerous kind, religious extremism. They think they have high ground, but they are putting a flag in the,

the lowest ground in American politics. I'm Chris Cuomo. Welcome to the Chris Cuomo project. I'm going to give you six reasons that Nancy Mace, someone who I have said in the past, that I respect and that I like what she was doing for her constituents. And I stand by that. Why? Because what she was doing then was a good thing. She went to Israel. She told the administration there, hey, you're not letting our people get out. Bebe, I get that you're an ally. This isn't working for me. All right. You won't listen, so I'm coming. I paid for her at the airport to get into Israel. I think it was Jordan, actually.

But she didn't have the money that wasn't set up. She just went there almost all by herself, okay? And she did what she said she was going to do. And she got her people out. And that was really important. And it was showing that she didn't care if BB Netanyahu is an ally. They weren't doing things the right way for her constituents and she was going to go get them. People were in danger.

That was good. This is bad. Okay? This is really bad. This is really, really bad. And here are the six reasons that MAGA, going full Islamophobia, is a huge mistake, but also an opportunity to claim high ground in what America is about. Number one, the reason it is a mistake. It is stupid.

Stupid rarely wins over time in American politics. Look, I don't know who this guy is at CNN asking. the questions. But I don't know if they're pumping him into him or his timing's just a little off and how he's responding to her, but it doesn't matter. The gross point he's making is right. Why are you saying all Muslims are the same? That is so un-American. And let me tell you, it is one of the oldest and ugliest forms of bigotry in our politics. Okay? They've done it about black people. They've done it about every type. Okay? Italians. Irish before that, no Irish need apply.

John F. Kennedy, don't vote for the Catholic. This suggestion that Muslims want to change the religion of our country, what's the religion of our country? Okay, so the first reason this doesn't work is it's stupid, okay? Number two, you got to fight on the ground of why it's stupid, okay? are all Christians psycho evangelicals? Are all Christians people who blow up abortion clinics? Are all Christians people who think Muslims are dangerous? No.

No, that's not all Christians. But by the way, there is no national religion. We are not a Christian country. Our founders, who were overwhelmingly Christian, went out of their way to make sure that wasn't the case. They inculcated it into the First Amendment. Think about how weird the First Amendment is. And think about why it was an amendment.

Why was it an amendment? All the states in the ratification process were like, you better highlight this shit right now. Okay? We do not want control. Like what happened to us in England with that crazy king making his own church. We don't want it here. That was the reaction formation.

No establishment of religion and free speech. Why did they put those two together? Because it was seen as a fundamental aspect of personal liberty. You do not tell me what to believe. My father, very famously, one of the two speeches that defined his entire political career. The first one was, of course, the keynote at the Democratic National Convention. The second one was a few months later at Notre Dame, Notre Dame, Notre Dame. Notre Dame, Notre Dame, however you want to say it.

At Notre Dame, he said, what secures my ability to be a Catholic is that I do not insist that my ideas get put on everybody else because someday somebody else's ideas may therefore be put on me. And that was true. And it was right. And Nancy Mace is forgetting that. Okay? Number one, it's stupid. Number two, you've got to lean into what she's getting wrong.

Not all Muslims are extreme Islamists or jihadis. Not all, right? Because look, what did they used to say after 9-11? After 93, okay? I lived them both. My father was governor in 93. Well, not all terrorists. Not all Muslims are terrorists, but all terrorists are Muslims.

Now, is that true? No. Look at who killed Charlie Kirk. Look at what's happening here with our own violence. Look at Mangione. All right? I don't even know if either of them can even spell Islamism. They're just stupid white guys who are using violence to advance their political aims.

That is terrorism, by the way. So, no, not a thing. Lean into it. Islamism and Islam are not the same. And you know what people say to me when I say this, even like Bill O'Reilly. Oh, playing games with language. Yeah. Language matters. Words matter. Islamism is a perversion. It's like the evangelical community in its most toxic form. If you were to give that a term, that's what Islamism is to Islam. That you think you get to kill and hurt people who don't believe what you believe because that's what God wants. There are some crazy-ass Christians who believe that. Now, are there as many as there are crazy-ass Muslims who believe that?

No, there are a lot more Muslims. And there are a lot more perverse ideologies that have power within Islam than we see within Christianity. And there's a lot more violence born of those. And there's just a lot more power within Islam in governments and in societies than we have in Christendom. So it's more of a focus. Okay, good. Let's lean into the Islam analysis. Okay, we did the, hey, you guys on the Christian side, you don't have so much high ground.

but it's not the same thing either. So let's lean into the reality, okay? Islamism is a perversion of Islam that takes the faith and puts it in its most ugly, divisive, and violent reckoning. They do the same thing with Sharia law. Sharia law can be basically whatever you want it to be. It's like a bunch of like kosher. It's like a bunch of cultural precepts.

And you take from it what you want. Some of it's ugly, some of it's not. Some of it's anachronistic. Some of it isn't. Okay? America should aggressively oppose terrorism and Islamist extremism. Okay? Extreme Islamism is a bad thing.

It is a bad thing. Now, by the way, if this was so clear, why are we so buddy-buddy with Saudi Arabia when they export one of the most extreme forms of Islamism, Wahhabism? They fund it. They nurture it. They represent it. Why are they our buddies all of a sudden? Maga? If you want to go all in on Islamophobia, why you're so tight with Saudi Arabia?

We used to call them the head of the snake before you guys decided to go to war with Iran. Lean into it. Lean into it. Okay? An Islamist extremist, someone who believes in extreme Islamism, is different than a Muslim. Okay, the same way that just because I say, I have a tradition of faith and I am someone who has been raised within Catholic Church. Does that mean I'm going to bomb an abortion clinic? Treating them as interchangeable is intellectual sloppiness and makes you a bigot. Nancy Mace looks like a bigot. Okay?

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Well, we kind of are now, aren't we? So this is another example, okay? Look at how Jews are getting their ass kick now because of Bibi Netanyahu. Look how Israel is getting painted with one brush because of B.B. Netanyahu. Look at how much shit Jews are taking in this country because of Bibi Netanyahu. I never thought I'd see anything like it. Now, are people wrong to be pissed off? No.

It's too much killing in too many places. And there's a lot of money going from America to Israel. And there's a lot of closeness. And with Bibi Netanyahu at the helm, I get why people have misgivings about what we're financing and what we're about. I think it is time for a change. Listen to Rahm Emanuel. He's a Democrat. He's a Zion.

He believes in Israel. A leader can ruin a country. Do you believe America is only what Donald Trump is about? His ambitions? Not me. I don't share almost any ideals with what he is putting out as president. I don't think it defines America at all. I think it's un-American.

But now I got to get painted with the brush of this fucking guy. That's what's happening to Jews. Why? Because you're blaming a type. So when someone's an anarchist and an atheist are all atheists, anarchists who want to destroy people who believe things? No. Why are you doing that with Muslims? Oh, they're different. No, they're not. The concept is the same. There may be more aberrant, violent, extreme Islamist Muslims or non-Muslims because they don't really live in the

faith the way they should. So I don't know why they get to be called Muslims anymore. Then somebody blows up an abortion clinic gets to be called a Christian. Okay? Government should punish conduct and credible threats, not religious identity. Nancy Mace knows better than this. She's playing politics to try to get back into Maga's Good Graces with something that's bigoted and stupid. She is better than this. She should be better than this. It is a mistake and it is an opportunity. Because in America, we don't punish type. I lived it, 93. I lived it, 9-11. Okay? I lived it. I'm not talking about it. I didn't read about it. I was there. I watched it. I lost people. I care about. It changed my life. It changed how I saw my profession. I got engaged 11 days later because of what I

saw and felt that day. I went to Iraq. I went to Afghanistan. I went to Pakistan because of what I saw that day and what I wanted to be against and what I wanted to be for. So I will suffer no fucking lecture from anybody telling me what is a threat to what I care about. And it is not Muslims. This is un-American, and there is opportunity in that. And they are going all in on this shit. Next point. Is this about national security? Or jingoism? Nativism. Isolationism? Because if it's about national security, you're hurting us. Because you're giving all of these Muslim countries reasons to fear us and to see us as inimical to their cause. You are not making us safer.

You're making us less safe. Okay? Is it a bad look to be with an asshole like Hassan Piker? Yes. Yes. And Mamdani has to own it and he has to distinguish himself from it. And you can argue to what degree he has. Do I think that Mam Dani is like Hassan Piker?

No, I do not. And my brother ran against the guy twice. twice and lost twice. Why? Because people saw through Hassan Piker is not what's got to be worried about with Mandani. It's what he sees as solutions to what are real problems that he identified. And he will be judged on the basis of those solutions. And that is righteous. It's not because he's a Muslim. I don't give a shit that he faked an African accent when he was a kid trying to impress people. I don't. I don't give a shit. You want to have a philosophical conversation about why his father, why their family was brought from India into Uganda to be

overseers of black people in the first place? Okay. But even that's not going to define him. He may have to answer for it. The same way my brother would have to answer for his father's ethnicity or any kind of story they could tell about him. But I'm not going to condemn the guy because he's Muslim. That's not what we do here. And it doesn't make us safer. It doesn't. Look, Muslim Americans are citizens, they're voters. They're still a big minority in this country. It's not going to stay that way. It isn't. This was like the only place in the world that had more Jews than Muslims until like five minutes ago. Now Muslims outnumber Jews here. And that's only going to keep growing. But they are citizens. They're voters. They're in the military. The police officers. The doctors. They're business

owners. They're your friends. They're your lovers. Okay? They're not all terrorists. They're not all Manchurian candidates. They're not all Trojan horses as Nancy May says. Making an entire religious community feel collectively suspicious can damage trust, can make them isolate, can make them turn against our community and our values. You're forcing that. Why? Because you want an enemy. And I think that's fucked up. And I think there's opportunity in that. Now, it is also constitutionally offensive or offensive to our constitution. The government can impose immigration restrictions based on legitimate security and vetting concerns. A Muslim ban is not one of them.

We've tried this. Trump tried it. It was tested. It was found lacking. Why? Because it is. Because you don't punish your type. Like Stephen Miller, that bigoted ass bitch wanted to do.

We don't do that here. We're better than that here. Why do I care so much? I'm not Muslim. because this was done to Italians. This was done to Catholics. Why shame people of Nancy Wray? Scared Christians with a false sense of superiority.

And I think she's better than this. I stand by what I said about her, what I saw her say and do in Israel. And I stand by this criticism. And I'm welcome to have her on to talk about it. Also, if you want to be about the Constitution, you cannot be about what she's saying. you have to judge policy on specific threats and facts.

Saying Muslims as a religious group are inherently dangerous will never meet that standard, nor should it. And it should not be discussed as meeting that standard. This is the same kind of shit that has always been done in America to the few. But what happens when the few become the many? And they are angry at what happened to them when they were the few. You better think about that. If you want the rules to stick, someday, if they're in the majority, is that, well, we should recognize that this country is a majority of Muslims and we should... If you want to protect against that, then you do the right thing now and you make religious preferences not a basis for constitutional reckoning, not in America.

Six, you know what Nancy Mace is doing, right? She's given the extremists, the extreme Islamists, exactly what they want. You see, they hate you in the West. They hate what you are. They're not about freedom. They're only about freedom for their own. We're fighting for you so that you can be free because they don't want that. Look, they say that if you and your culture want to cover yourself and you'll find Muslim women who will tell you all day to your face that I'm educated and I choose to cover myself because this is what I believe and this is what I espouse.

Do I like it? No. Do I get it? No. Would I want that for my daughters? No. Now, if they made that choice for themselves, what would I do? I don't know.

I'd have to deal with it. Hopefully I don't get to that point. But even if you think that it's absolutely in all cases an oppressive thing, that's their choice. Okay? Now, if that choice is being forced on them, now, now we've got a fair fight. And now we've got a fight about what's fair. Now we've got an American fight. But what Nancy Mace is saying and what MAGA is leaning into because all of these people are saying this shit one degree or enough,

And almost none of them is saying it the other way. Remember Donald Trump, Islam hates us. And then he also wanted to tell you, oh, and I got a lot of Muslim friends who I love and they love me. After you say that shit about them, I doubt it. Muslims could never truly belong in Western society. You hear it from people on the right all the time and it's becoming more and more mainstream. Islam is not compatible with Western values. That is bullshit. American politicians who tell Muslim citizens they're inherently suspect, inadvertently reinforce the narrative that they have no place here. And you know who keeps telling them that?

The extremists. The better argument is obvious. Everybody who wants to come here and assimilate and respect our laws is welcome. That's it. That is the founding principle of this country. I know they didn't want you there. Here we do. Why did they pick Emma Lazarus'

poem, an excerpt from the new Colossus for the base of the Statue of Liberty. They were all white guys. Why did they pick it? Bring us your tires, you're poor, those yearning to be free, the huddled masses. Why? Because it was a rejection principle. We know they don't want you. Here, all are welcome, as long as you join in what we want to make here. Why are you changing that? And how dare you change it in the interests and nominally outwardly as being American and pro-American. You are not pro-American. You are pro-bigot. You are pro-prejudice. They did the same shit with black people when they didn't want you to marry them, when they didn't want them to vote, when they didn't want them to be a full human. It's the same shit. Don't do it. Fight against it. There's opportunity in it.

I'm telling you that MAGA is picking a stupid fight to play to fear. to get away from the economy, to get away from the truth, to get away from the reality. And they're picking this because it worked before. I remember after 9-11, getting into a cab and seeing a sign, Sikh, not Muslim, S-I-H. It's a major faith in India, Hindus and Sikhs. Not Muslim, I love America. Don't hurt me.

I said to the cab driver, I had the sign for a long time when CNN fired me. one of the things that got lost when they packed up my office for me because they wouldn't even let me go back and say goodbye to anybody or pack up. Anyway, I said to him, what's this about? He goes, well, you know, a guy punched me in the face the other day. People could try and hurt me blame me for 9-11. It's not even the same faith. He's not even part of the same culture. It just made me so sad. That's the sort of worst or weakest or least American. That's what Nancy Mesa is playing to. And I wish she wouldn't. I wish she'd stop because she should be better than this. But I get why they're doing it and there's an opportunity in that because there's a fight coming.

These elections are going to be a fight and they should be. But they should be a fair fight and a fight on what's fairness and what's American. You got to distinguish between this Trump-era bullshit restrictions based on type. versus country-specific vetting security deficiencies. You can't just ban Muslims, okay? That's why it got rejected. That's why the Supreme Court didn't want to hear it, didn't want to consider it.

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Extreme thinking yields extreme outcomes and they're almost always negative. And MAGA is playing a dangerous game because it's, in their opinion, the only game they have to play, which is how do I distract you from the economy? How do I distract you from what we did? How do I distract you from what I failed to stop? So you get Nancy Mace, who took a brave stance on the Epstein files. I don't know why it was brave within her party, but it was. She paid a big price for going against Trump because she wanted to help survivors, which she's one of, and she wanted

transparency and accountability, which they campaigned on, and then did the opposite, they've hidden more of the Epstein files from you than that which they have revealed. Think about that. How does that same person now wind up doing like the opposite and fighting for what is not right, what is not fair? Now victimizing people on the basis of type. How does that same people do that? The politics of extremism. and looking for a fight and looking for a bad guy, looking for someone to blame so she can get back in the good graces of Maga because they hate her for what she did with Epstein,

but she did the right thing there. Why do the wrong thing to reward people who punished you for doing the right thing? See it as an opportunity. I just laid you the six reasons that this Islamophobia play is going to backfire. And it should backfire. Look, you hang out with terrorist types. Fuck you. And you should be held accountable for it.

And you should have to answer for it. and El-Sayed, the doctor who just got the Democratic nomination in Michigan, which means a lot of people voted for him who were Muslim and not Muslim, he's going to have to make that case. And I think he is making the case, by the way. But you judge for yourself. Same thing with Mom Donnie. All right?

Look, I don't have the luxury that you have to have the prejudices and the biases that you can carry in your everyday life. I can't. I've been forced to have an unnatural level of objectivity about myself and my family because we signed up to get judged by the rest of you. So I love my brother. I believe in my brother. I think he would have been an excellent mayor. But the reason to vote for Cuomo and not Mamdani is not because Mamdani's a terrorist.

That's bullshit. Oh, but he hung out with Hassan Piker. Yeah, that was stupid. I'd be like my brother hanging out with like a Colombo crime family member. It's like, well, why would you hang out with a scumbag who does and believes ugly things that are un-American? And Mamdani had to answer for it. He still won. He won with a lot.

of non-Muslim votes. And now we'll see what he's about and what he isn't. And by the way, if somebody tells you, look, I don't believe in that shit. And they're playing these clips of El-Sayed saying, look, look, he's fighting for Sharia. No, he isn't. He was fighting in a Muslim group for them to see exactly what Nancy Mace is doing. They want to change and they want to outlaw you believing what you believe. Sharia doesn't have to mean the worst things in the world.

It can be interpreted different ways. Look, it's definitely something that can be abused and be oppressive and be dangerous, and it is absolutely inconsistent in the extreme with American law and order. No question. But that's not what he's asking for. He was saying to Muslims, and look, if you're explaining, you're often losing in politics. So this is his problem, not mine. But fairness and critical thinking is my problem and is my provenance. And it is my place.

him saying these people want to outlaw you believing what's part of your faith is a legitimate gripe he did not say i want sharia to replace american law if he said that i think he disqualifies himself from being elected in a constitutional republic that is secular by its nature its design and its intention but see these six reasons that maga is setting themselves up for a bad fight and a bad fall and see it for what it is because islamopholes it's just the new package of the same kind of bias of type that we've seen in this country again and again. See it for what it is. Fight the good fight.

It is not going to come from a place of fear. It's going to come from a place of fealty to our liberty and our laws via the Constitution. And what they're asking for here to just see Muslims as different and bad is un-American. What do you think? Am I right? Am I wrong? Why? Thank you for subscribing and following. Thank you for giving me a shot here at the Chris Cuomo Project. Thank you for listening to me on Sirius Radio in the morning. Thank you for watching me at News Nation at night. Thank you for subscribing to Cuomo Crime Time. Thank you for getting the branded merch and showing that you're an independent. You're a free agent. You're a critical thinker. That you're different. Because that's how we get through the fear and the phobias and the bullshit. The challenges are real, my brothers and sisters. Let's get after it. You know,