Facts and Math Are Both Hard for Smug Daily Beast Pair Ridiculing Refugee-Refusing Governors

Michael Weiss and Justin Miller at the Daily Beast are apparently really proud of themselves. They’re claiming that because a passport found on one of the terrorists involved in last Friday’s terrorist murder spree was a fake, it “means the (U.S.) governors’ freakout over refugees was based, at least in part, on a lie.” Based on their headline (“GOP Guvs Rely on ISIS Lies to Reject Syrian Refugees”), their attack was only directed at Republican governors.

There are at least four problems with their assertion. The funniest one is that these two apparently have no business ever being trusted around a calclulator or a spreadsheet. It’s either that, or Weiss and Miller really believe that 475 million Syrian refugess are spreading themselves throughout Europe and much of the rest of the world.

The first problem is that New Hampshire’s Democratic governor had already joined the list of state chief executives refusing Syrian refugees over five hours before their post.

Second, Jim Geraghty at National Review pointed to other evidence in his Tuesday morning email:

Third, even if one doesn’t believe that the fingerprint evidence Geraghty referenced is convincing, there’s this item at the UK Express about the degree of terrorist EU infiltration, also published well before the Daily Beast post:

‘Just wait…’ Islamic State reveals it has smuggled THOUSANDS of extremists into Europe
AN OPERATIVE working for Islamic State has revealed the terror group has successfully smuggled thousands of covert jihadists into Europe.

The Syrian operative claimed more than 4,000 covert ISIS gunmen had been smuggled into western nations – hidden amongst innocent refugees.

The ISIS smuggler, who is in his thirties and is described as having a trimmed jet-black beard, revealed the ongoing clandestine operation is a complete success.

“Just wait,” he smiled.

The Islamic State operative spoke exclusively to BuzzFeed on the condition of anonymity and is believed to be the first to confirm plans to infiltrate western countries.

If 0.1 percent of that number were to arrive in the U.S. as bogus Syrian refugees, that would be four too many (4,000 x .001 equals 4).

Last but not least, and speaking of percentages, this pair of smug Daily Beast dolts completely blew a simple calculation involving percentages at the end of their report, coming up with a ridiculous figure they apparently thought was too good to check, because it maximized the ridicule they thought they were heaping on Republican governors (saved here as a graphic in case it ever gets corrected):

Governors might not have the power to stop the federal government from resettling refugees once they’ve been granted status to stay in the U.S. Doing so would only compound the human suffering that has already befallen 4.1 million people displaced from Syria since the civil war began in 2011. Remember, they are fleeing Bashar al-Assad and ISIS, among others.

So far the U.S. has accepted 1,900 refugees in the past two years, or 0.0004 percent of all Syrian refugees.

Uh, no.

1,900 is 0.0454 percent of 4.1 million. If the 1,900 figure quoted really were 0.0004 percent of all Syrian refugees, that would mean that there are 475 million Syrian refugees (1,900 divided by 0.0004 percent really is 475 million), well over 20 times that beleaguered nation’s population.

And these guys, both "senior editors," have the nerve to ridicule others?

It must be nice being able to just throw horse manure out there with no accountability — and I’m really being unfair to horse manure, which at least has its uses.

Cross-posted at NewsBusters.org.