Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker said Sunday he wasn’t trying to compare state protesters to terrorists.
“If I could take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world,” he told the Conservative Political Action Conference last week. He was referring to Wisconsin protests four years ago against his challenges to public employee unions.
Sunday, he explained to “Fox News Sunday” that “I'm not comparing those two entities. What I meant was, it was about leadership.”
He called that leadership “arguably, the most difficult of any governor in the country, and maybe in -- in recent times, in taking on the challenge of not just the protesters, but everything we had to do the last four years in stepping up and fighting the leadership to move our state forward.”
What’s that have to do with fighting terrorists and the Islamic State? “To me,” he said, “I apply that to saying if I were to run and if I were to win and be commander-in-chief, I believe that kind of leadership is what's necessary to take on radical Islamic terrorism.”
Walker’s comments didn’t appear to hurt him among those who attended the CPAC conference. He finished a strong second in its straw poll Saturday, as audience members praised his challenges to unions.
Sunday, Fox host Chris Wallace also asked for an example of leadership. “Would you commit U.S. ground forces to combat ISIS in any way, shape or form?” Wallace asked.
“I believe we should not take any action off the table,” he said.
So does that mean ground forces?
“For me to do something like that would require a number of things,” Walker said. “Listening to the chain of command, particularly the Joint Chiefs, your national security advisers and others, as to what's necessary and listening to the people who are actually out in the field is the best way to do that.
“But then also bring together a coalition. Certainly, reaffirming our major asset, our major ally in the region, that being Israel, but also our other allies around the world.”