Trump doubles down on call to slow Muslim immigration
'Have to do the right thing and that's the way I've been guided'
Published: 5 hours ago
CHERYL CHUMLEY
Donald Trump, in a Wednesday interview on “Morning Joe” on MSNBC, doubled down on his previous calls to stem the tide of Muslim immigration – calls that set him at fierce odds with civil-rights activists and pro-Muslim organizations – and said he didn’t care so much about hurting his presidential chances as about protecting America from danger.
The question posed to Trump was this: Do you still believe “Muslims should be banned from entering the country until we can figure out what’s going on?”
And Trump’s response was blunt.
“I don’t care if it hurts me,” he said. “I’m doing the right thing when I do this. And whether it’s Muslim or whether it’s something else, I mean, I have to do the right thing and that’s the way I’ve been guided. And I’ve been guided by common sense, by what’s right.”
He referenced the mass immigration from Muslim-dominated countries that’s hit hard at Europe.
And he went on: “Look at what’s happening. It’s terrible what they have done to some of these countries … They are destroying Europe. I’m not going to let that happen to the United States.”
Trump then derided President Obama for his refusal to even use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” and said under his watch – under a Trump presidency – “common sense” would prevail.
“We have to be careful,” Trump said. “We’re allowing thousands of people to come into our country, thousands and thousands of people being placed all over the country that frankly nobody knows who they are. They don’t have documentation in many cases. In most cases. We don’t know what we’re doing. Let’s see what happens. This could be a very serious problem for the future.”
His comments came shortly after former Indiana Hoosiers basketball coach Bobby Knight, who endorsed Trump for the election, tossed off a reporter’s questions about personal concerns over his presidential pick’s views of Muslim immigration.
CNN’s John Berman asked Knight, during a Wednesday interview: “Donald Trump has made a lot of controversial proposals, a lot of controversial statements. Among other things, he says he wants to temporarily ban Muslims from coming into the United States. Does that concern you? … Banning Muslims, a lot of people think banning Muslims from coming to the United States is controversial, or it’s un-American to prevent people from coming to the United States based on religion.”
And Knight’s reply: “Well, that’s OK. That doesn’t really mean anything to me right now. We’re talking about a guy that I think can handle things far better than anything that we’ve had recently.”
In December, Trump told South Carolina supporters at a rally that Muslims ought to be halted from entering America’s borders until U.S. officials could get a grasp on immigration policy and discern friend from enemy when determining who to let in the country. At the time, he was attacked by members of the media, noted Democrati and liberal pundits and politicians, pro-Muslim organizations, and by fellow GOP presidential candidates and party insiders.
Sen. Lindsey Graham, for example, wrote on Twitter: “@Realdonaldtrump has gone from making absurd comments to being downright dangerous with his bombastic rhetoric,” as WND previously reported.
http://www.wnd.com/2016/05/trump-dou...m-immigration/
