Mr Trump’s campaign has been marked by a pattern of inflammatory statements and he kicked off his campaign with a speech in which he said some Mexican immigrants are rapists and criminals. “Can you imagine what some of our great leaders of the past would have said with the crap that is happening with us?”
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Like many opponents of Trump’s proposal, both Levy and Cassidy questioned the usefulness of a travel ban that screens individuals exclusively on religion, arguing that there will never be a constitutionally valid religious test to enter the U.S.
Calls for a Muslim “shutdown” from Donald Trump have been slammed around the world. “His policy are not serious“.
“It is un-Republican. It is unconstitutional”.
Asked about the reaction, Trump said on MSNBC’s Morning Joe that Republicans have criticized numerous things he has said and later come around to support him.
“It’s until the country’s representatives can figure out what’s going on”, he said.
Still, others said they could see why Trump has said what he said. “You figure it out!”
And New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie (R) told radio host Michael Medved in an interview on Monday that Trump’s proposal reflected his lack of executive experience.
“And I’m going to stand up for what I believe in as I do that”, he added.
The Republican presidential candidate said what he is proposing is “no different” to the actions of president Franklin Roosevelt, “who was highly respected by all” despite his wartime measures that included putting Japanese-Americans in internment camps in the US. “I think everybody needs to be checked”. People of a particular religion may get favorable treatment by the United States, as when Russian Jews sought to leave the Soviet Union. “So why should we not condemn an American if he says that?”
“The protest is a response to Donald Trump coming down to Charleston, where we’ve been through a lot this year, from Walter Scott to the Emmanuel Nine” said Latisha, a member of Black Lives Matter Charleston, referencing the murders of local black people at the hands of police officer Michael Slager and white supremacist Dylann Roof.
Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said that “I disagree with Donald Trump’s latest proposal”.
Mr Trump has taken a particularly hard line against Muslims in the days since the Paris attacks, advocating enhanced surveillance of mosques due to fears over radicalisation.
Foreign governments also criticized Trump, saying his anti-Muslim comments would help the Islamic State and other terrorist groups argue that the United State is waging war against Islam.
The Trump campaign cited a controversial June survey of Muslim Americans by the Center for Security Policy, which found that 25 percent of respondents agreed that violence against American citizens was justified as part of a global Islamic jihad. John McCain of Arizona said, “It’s just foolish”.
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But will it hurt his campaign?
