GOP Candidates Respond: Trump's Plan "Unhinged," "Downright Dangerous," "Not My Policy"
It’s only been a few minutes since the Trump campaign called for an open, sweeping policy of institutional bigotry at the federal level, and already his Republican rivals are chiming in.
The strongest condemnation so far comes from Jeb Bush, who called Trump “unhinged” over his plan to bar all Muslims from entering the United States because they hate us so much:
Donald Trump is unhinged. His "policy" proposals are not serious.
— Jeb Bush (@JebBush) December 7, 2015
Lindsey Graham came very close to saying the decent, right thing
.@Realdonaldtrump has gone from making absurd comments to being downright dangerous with his bombastic rhetoric.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 7, 2015
but then fucked it all up by qualifying it:
He’s putting at risk the lives of interpreters, American supporters, diplomats, & the troops in the region by making these bigoted comments
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 7, 2015
But at least he called for his GOP peers to speak out as well:
Every candidate for president needs to do the right thing & condemn @Realdonaldtrump's statement.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) December 7, 2015
Chris Christie, during an appearance on the Michael Medved radio show, was asked about Trump’s statement (emphasis added):
CHRIS CHRISTIE: Again, this is the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don’t know what they’re talking about. We do not need to endorse that type of activity, nor should we. What we need to do is to increase our intelligence capabilities and activity both around the world and in the homeland. We need to back up our law enforcement officers, who are out there fighting this fight everyday, give them the tools they need. We need to cooperate with peaceful Muslim-Americans, who want to give us intelligence against those who are radicalized. We did this after 9/11. And it was a very impressive approach. I can tell you in New Jersey that we frequently had sources inside mosques in New Jersey that were giving us information that helped us to bring cases and intervene on things that we otherwise wouldn’t have know about. This is just to me someone speaking from no experience.
MEDVED: You’ve also had experience in the court system. Don’t you think it’s likely that would be overturned as a violation of the First Amendment – prohibitions on religious tests?
CHRIS CHRISTIE: There’s no question in my mind, but there are folks in this race who don’t care about what the law says because they’re used to being able to just fire people indiscriminately on television. So, they don’t have to worry about laws say or not say. The fact is this, you can do this if you have a president who’s experienced, who’s prosecuted folks, operated under the law of the Constitution and has made the difficult decisions over the last thirteen years to keep New Jersey safe to help keep our country safe. And you do not need to be banning Muslims from the country. That’s, in my view, that’s a ridiculous position and one that won’t even be productive.
Stephanie Marshall from the Carson campaign provided this soothing, extra-mild rebuke of Trump:
Everyone visiting our country should register and be monitored during their stay as is done in many countries. We do not and would not advocate being selective on one’s religion.
John Kasich comes out swinging:
— John Kasich (@JohnKasich) December 7, 2015
Ted Cruz says that a ban on Muslims is “not his policy”:
.@tedcruz to me just now on @realDonaldTrump Muslim pln: "That is not my policy. I believe the focus should be on radical Islamic terrorism"
— Hallie Jackson (@HallieJackson) December 7, 2015
Carly Fiorina, a bad CEO and coward, declined to say bigotry is bad and instead used Trump’s policy proposal as an excuse to take a swat at President Obama:
.@CarlyFiorina in Iowa: "Donald Trump's overreaction is as dangerous as President Obama's under reaction." Per @LaurenBlanch12
— Fin Gomez (@finnygo) December 7, 2015
I’ll be updating this post as comments from more GOP campaigns arrive.
Rand Paul bolsters is record as “guy who is right on the NSA and drones and wrong on literally everything else” with this mush:
Rand camp sends non-condemnation of Trump: pic.twitter.com/z0anPIX9DM
— Rosie Gray (@RosieGray) December 7, 2015
Eventually, Marco Rubio weighed in, to say he disagrees with Trump’s proposal.
The next President better be somebody who can unite our country to face the great challenges of the 21st Century.
— Marco Rubio (@marcorubio) December 8, 2015
“Outlandish” is one word for it.
Contact the author at biddle@gawker.com.
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