Critics Lambaste Obama for Downplaying ISIS Threat

It's not the first time the president has downplayed ISIS. He famously called them "the JV team" in the months before the jihadist army swept through Iraq, taking control of several cities.

CBN News Terrorism Analyst Erick Stakelbeck said the president does not understand the threat posed by radical Islam. Watch the full interview.

In his final State of the Union address Tuesday night, the president said Republicans have exaggerated the threat of ISIS.

"Masses of fighters on the back of pickup trucks and twisted souls plotting in apartments or garages pose enormous danger to civilians and must be stopped, but they do not threaten our national existence," Obama said.

Republicans fired back, accusing the president of having no strategy to defeat ISIS.

"He made a comment that America is not under attack, that terrorists aren't attacking here. Well, they are," Williams told The Hill. "The enemies are attacking. They attacked at Chattanooga, they attacked in California, they attacked in my district at Fort Hood."