He addressed the issue during a rally in Alabama later, telling the crowd that reports on his previous statements were inaccurate. I want to have surveillance. Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has largely avoided criticizing Trump throughout the 2016 campaign, said, “I’m not a fan of government registries of American citizens”. “I want surveillance of certain mosques, OK”. “I want surveillance. And you know what?”
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Coming off a tirade bashing journalists as “terrible people”, the billionaire said that when he was asked by an NBC reporter – “some little wise guy”, according to Trump – about backing a database on Muslims, he had been distracted by “music playing in the background” and signing autographs.
Trump is imprecise – again – and Trump or his people need to clear this up, but from what we’re seeing, it looks like Haberman’s tweet doesn’t capture the spirit of what Trump was trying to get across. Later that day, an NBC News reporter pressed him on whether, as president, he would implement a database system for tracking Muslims in the United States.
On Friday, Trump said on Twitter that he didn’t suggest creating a database but instead was answering a question from a reporter. You know, when I did this, I said I have to be treated fairly.
In the Washington Post/ABC News survey, 52% of respondents said the attribute most important to them personally in selecting a candidate was that the person would bring change needed to Washington, while 28% said they prefer the most honest candidate and 11% said experience is most important.
In October the real estate mogul told Fox Business News he would consider a proposal of closing a few mosques, along with revoking the passports of a few Americans who had gone overseas to fight and train with ISIS.
Since the November 13 attacks in Paris by Islamic extremists, which killed 130 people, the national mood has turned against admitting refugees from Syria, where the Islamic State has taken control of certain areas, a poll by Bloomberg Politics showed last week.
Republican media consultant Rick Wilson told the Wall Street Journal, “People are finally taking the threat that Trump will destroy the Republican Party and lose the general election to Hillary Clinton seriously”.
Ben Carson, who faced criticism this week for comparing Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs”, wouldn’t say whether he would reinstate the use of waterboarding.
President Barack Obama banned waterboarding, a Central Intelligence Agency interrogation method widely denounced as torture, after he took office in 2009. Trump and retired neurosurgeon Carson have stunned the political world with their rise to the top of a few polls in the crowded Republican nomination race.
Civil liberties experts said a database for Muslims would be unconstitutional on several counts.
“We should monitor anything – mosques, church, school, you know, shopping center – where there is a lot of radicalization going on”, Carson said, acknowledging that it could require beefing up USA intelligence capabilities.
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On the phone to “Morning Joe”, Trump’s rhetoric was more definite: “You’re going to have to watch and study the mosques because a lot of talk is going on at the mosques …”
