CIA Director John Brennan appeared on Fox News Sunday with Chris Wallace and despite the host's persistence, could not utter the words "Islamic extremists."

Brennan explained to Wallace what he understands is the ideology that is behind ISIS:

It is a very twisted and perverted interpretation of a religion that they purport to represent, but in no way do they represent. It's an ideology of violence, that's what it is. It is not a religious ideology.

"Well, Islam is certainly a part of it, isn't it?" Wallace asked.

Brennan furthered:

They purport to be Muslims, but as I said, the overwhelming majority of Muslims throughout the world roundly denounce and condemn what they're doing. And that's why we should not give them any type of religious legitimacy.

It was then, Wallace reminded Brennan of his refusal and President Obama's refusal to say "Islamic extremism." He mentioned Lieutenant General Michael Flynn, former head of the Defense Intelligence Agency, who has said that it is critical to define your enemy if you want to defeat them. If that is true, Wallace wondered why the Obama administration isn't confronting that fact.

"And we are confronting it," Brennan assured. Their conversation continued:

WALLACE: So, why not say, 'This is a perverted form of Islam and here's what we're doing to stop it. And this is why they're wrong about Islam,' instead of ignoring that.

BRENNAN: No, I think that's exactly what we have said. It is a corruption of the Islamic faith. It is a distortion of it. It does not represent the Muslim community or Islam.

WALLACE: Are you prepared to say they're Islamic extremists?

BRENNAN: I am prepared to say that they're extremists. They're violent terrorists who misrepresent what the Islamic religion is about. Yes, absolutely.

Wallace played a clip of Brennan from 2012 in which he said: "If a decade before 9/11 was the time of al-Qaeda's rise, and the decade after 9/11 was the time of its decline, then I believe this decade will be the one that sees its demise."

Wallace asked, "Weren't you just flat wrong about that?"

Brennan defended his statements saying the core of al-Qaeda "have taken really big hits." When Wallace reminded him that ISIS is an offshoot of al-Qaeda, Brennan offered, "This is a phenomenon that we're going to have to deal with and I do think over the next decade, this is going to be a long and hard fight."

But based on Brennan's words from 2012, Wallace felt they were giving the American people a false sense of confidence in the fight against terrorism, especially since it coincided with President Obama's run for re-election.

Brennan defended this allegation:

What we said was, al-Qaeda was on the run. We said that al-Qaeda was really bloodied… There what no sense that, I think, either I or the president or others gave to the American people that terrorism was going away. But, we've made great progress against a lot of these groups that have plans in place to carry out attacks.

Watch that clip below: