Donald Trump made headlines again with his vitriolic call for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. Republicans would like you to think Trump’s statement does not reflect the values of the GOP field. The truth of the matter is this: while Donald Trump’s words might be more bombastic and belligerent, they are not far off from what other GOP candidates have said about Syrian refugees, Muslims, and immigrants.
Worse, it’s not only their rhetoric – the GOP presidential candidates’ prejudiced and un-American polices confirm this hate. The GOP excludes and demonizes minorities to prey on the fears of their base.
Trump knows better than anyone that the GOP presidential field stands together. Today on Morning Joe he said, “[The Republican candidates have] been condemning practically everything I say, and then they always come to my side… They’ve been condemning all of the things that I’ve been espousing, and now, most of them are on my side.”
GOP Islamophobia
Donald Trump
Donald Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the United States. “Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump wants to bar all Muslims from entering the United States. In a statement from his campaign, Trump called for a ‘total and complete shutdown’ of Muslims entering the United States until elected leaders can ‘figure out what is going on.’ When asked by The Hill whether that would include Muslim-American citizens currently abroad, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks replied over email: ‘Mr. Trump says, ‘everyone.’’” [The Hill, 12/7/15]
- Donald Trump’s ban would apply to both potential immigrants and tourists. “Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump says he is calling for a ‘complete and total shutdown’ on Muslims entering the United States. Trump says in a statement released by his campaign Monday that his proposal comes in response to the level of hatred among ‘large segments of the Muslim population’ toward Americans. Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski says Trump’s proposed ban would apply to ‘everybody,’ including Muslims seeking immigration visas as well as tourists seeking to enter the country.” [Associated Press, 12/7/15]
- Donald Trump’s ban would include American citizens abroad. “When asked by The Hill whether that would include Muslim-American citizens currently abroad, Trump spokeswoman Hope Hicks replied over email: ‘Mr. Trump says, ‘everyone.’’ Trump is quoted in the statement as saying that a significant number of Muslims harbor a ‘hatred’ toward America and as a result should be kept out of the country.” [The Hill, 12/7/15]
Donald Trump said he “would certainly implement” a national system to track Muslims in the United States. “Donald Trump ‘would certainly implement’ a database system tracking Muslims in the United States, the Republican front-runner told NBC News on Thursday night. ‘I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,’ Trump said in Newton, Iowa, in between campaign town halls. ‘There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases,’ he added. ‘We should have a lot of systems.’ When asked whether Muslims would be legally obligated to sign into the database, Trump responded, ‘They have to be — they have to be.’” [NBC News, 11/20/15]
Donald Trump falsely claimed that “Arab populations” in New Jersey “were cheering as the World Trade Center came down.” “Trump told ABC’s This Week: ‘There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down.’ If Trump actually saw this on television, it was perhaps on a special channel produced only for him and some of his followers. While Internet posts alleging this existed immediately following the terrorist attacks, police departments and local media said then and say now there were no such celebrations. Interestingly, fellow GOP candidate Ben Carson, who following Trump’s remarks also said he saw the cheering on TV, later said he had gotten confused, and footage of the celebrations was actually from East Jerusalem.” [National Journal, 11/30/15]
Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz: “I will shut down the broken immigration system that is letting jihadists into our country.” “If I am elected President, I will direct the Department of Defense to destroy ISIS. And I will shut down the broken immigration system that is letting jihadists into our country.” [Ted Cruz press release, 12/6/15]
Ted Cruz employed an anti-Sharia activist as his Tennessee state chairman. “Republican Ted Cruz’s presidential campaign is rejecting a call to drop an anti-Shariah activist as his state chairman for Tennessee. Kevin Kookogey, a former chairman of the Williamson County GOP, once criticized Republican Gov. Bill Haslam over the role of a Muslim staffer and a council that has advised two state departments on Islamic affairs. He presided over the 2012 passage of a resolution that said the governor had extended ‘preferential political status to Shariah adherents in Tennessee, thereby aiding and abetting the advancement of an ideology and doctrine which is wholly incompatible with the Constitution of the United States and the Tennessee Constitution.’ The Council on American-Islamic Relations urged Kookogey’s removal as Cruz’s Tennessee chairman, saying that keeping him in place would serve as what the group called ‘an endorsement of anti-Muslim hate.’” [Associated Press, 6/11/15]
Ben Carson
Ben Carson compared Syrian refugees to “dogs.” “‘If there’s a rabid dog running around in your neighborhood, you’re probably not going to assume something good about that dog, and you’re probably going to put your children out of the way,’ retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said Thursday in Mobile, Ala.,when he was asked about Syrian refugees. ‘It doesn’t mean that you hate all dogs by any stretch of the imagination, but you’re putting your intellect into motion.’” [Washington Post, 11/19/15]
Ben Carson said he would not support a Muslim for President of the United States. “Ben Carson says the United States should not elect a Muslim president. ‘I would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation. I absolutely would not agree with that,’ the retired neurosurgeon and Republican presidential candidate said Sunday on NBC’s ‘Meet the Press.’” [CNN, 9/21/15]
Marco Rubio
Marco Rubio said that Muslims were like “Germans who may have been members of the Nazi party, but weren’t violent themselves.” “I don’t understand it. That would be like saying we weren’t at war with Nazis because we were afraid to offend some Germans who may have been members of the Nazi party, but weren’t violent themselves. We are at war with radical Islam, with an interpretation of Islam by a significant number of people around the world who they believe now justifies them in killing those who don’t agree with their ideology. This is a clash of civilizations. And as I said at the debate earlier this week, there is no middle ground on this. Either they win or we win, and we need to begin to take this seriously.” [ABC’s This Week, 11/15/15]
- Salon’s Elias Isquith: Marco Rubio implied “that all Muslims are morally equivalent to Nazis.” “As Talking Points Memo’s Josh Marshall has noted, this comment has not received nearly the amount of attention that it should. Because while it’s nothing new to hear the violent extremism of ISIS or al Qaeda compared to Nazism, it’s much less common to hear someone of stature imply that all Muslims are morally equivalent to Nazis. Not Germans, mind you, but Nazis — which means, of course, that Islam is equivalent to the Nazi Party.” [Salon, 11/21/15]
- TPM’s Josh Marshall: “The clear import of Rubio’s Nazi analogy is that we are in fact at war with Islam itself but that there are many Muslims who haven’t themselves committed acts of terrorism.” “As this crowd is fond of saying, words have meaning and they have consequences. And the clear import of Rubio’s Nazi analogy is that we are in fact at war with Islam itself but that there are many Muslims who haven’t themselves committed acts of terrorism. Read the actual words. That’s the only reasonable interpretation of the analogy as he states it. He doesn’t say it’s comparable to not mentioning Nazism because it might offend all Germans but that it’s like tiptoeing around the word ‘Nazism’ for fear of offending German members of the Nazi party. Again, in this framework all Muslims are comparable to Nazi party members. Just some haven’t gotten their hands dirty.” [Talking Points Memo, 11/19/15]
- Washington Post: Marco Rubio was “essentially casting the Paris attackers as products of Muslim society rather than a radical group apart from it.” “Sen. Marco Rubio (Fla.) said the attacks were part of a ‘clash of civilizations’ — essentially casting the Paris attackers as products of Muslim society rather than a radical group apart from it.” [Washington Post, 11/19/15]
- New York Magazine’s Jonathan Chait: “If we tease out Rubio’s metaphor, the Muslim faith as a whole is equivalent to Nazism, and violent jihadi terrorists are the equivalent of the Nazi leadership.” “If we tease out Rubio’s metaphor, the Muslim faith as a whole is equivalent to Nazism, and violent jihadi terrorists are the equivalent of the Nazi leadership. Rubio has a knack for grasping the midpoint of Republican Party doctrine at any given moment, and his comments reflect the party’s renewed conviction that the war against terrorists must be defined in the broadest possible terms.” [New York Magazine, 11/16/15]
Marco Rubio said he was open to not allowing Muslim students to receive student visas in the U.S. “On Thursday morning, Rubio stood by his comments in an interview with Fox News host Martha MacCallum: MACCALLUM: You opened the door to perhaps not allowing Muslim students to receive student visas in this country. Did you mean that, 24 hours later? RUBIO: Yeah. Because, let me explain to you. We have to get proper perspective here. No one has a right to immigrate to the United States. No one has a right to visit the United States and no one has a right to get a visa to study in the United States.” [Think Progress, 4/24/13]
Jeb Bush
Jeb Bush said he supported making Syrian refugees “prove” they’re Christian as part of the vetting process. “Asked whether he would bar moderate Muslims entirely, Bush said he wants to see what the vetting process looks like first. He was also asked how he would distinguish between Muslims and Christians. ‘You can prove you’re a Christian,’ he said. Pressed further on how, Bush shrugged his shoulders and replied: ‘I think you can prove it. If you can’t prove it, then, you know, you err on the side of caution.’” [CNN, 11/18/15]
Mike Huckabee
Mike Huckabee on the refugee crisis: “It’s time to wake up and smell the falafel…We are importing terrorism.” “Former governor of Arkansas and current presidential hopeful Mike Huckabee responded to Friday night’s terrorist attacks in Paris by saying on Saturday that the United States should close their borders to Syrian refugees. ‘It’s time to wake up and smell the falafel,’ Huckabee told Fox News’ Bret Baier, referring to the traditionally Middle Eastern dish that is — perhaps unbeknownst to him — loved and made by Christians, Jews and Muslims. ‘We are importing terrorism.’” [Huffington Post, 11/16/15]
Mike Huckabee called Muslims “uncorked animals” and said Islam is “a religion that promotes the most murderous mayhem on the planet.” “Speaking on his radio program on Monday, Huckabee prefaced his remarks by saying that he understood it was ‘politically incorrect’ to ‘say anything unkind about Islam.’ He then went on to suggest that Islamic teachings were to blame for recent unrest during the holy month of Ramadan. ‘Can someone explain to me why it is that we tiptoe around a religion that promotes the most murderous mayhem on the planet in their so-called “holiest days,”’ Huckabee said. ‘You know, if you’ve kept up with the Middle East, you know that the most likely time to have an uprising of rock throwing and rioting comes on the day of prayer on Friday. So the Muslims will go to the mosque, and they will have their day of prayer, and they come out of there like uncorked animals — throwing rocks and burning cars.’” [Huffington Post, 8/9/13]
Rick Santorum
Rick Santorum endorsed racial profiling of Muslims. “In a discussion over balancing national security and privacy, Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum said Tuesday he would endorse profiling, specifically of Muslims and young men, in order to enhance security at airports. ‘We should be trying to find the bomber, not the bomb,’ the former Pennsylvania senator said at the CNN debate, explaining his support for profiling. He cited the use of profiling in Israel as an example of how it would work. Asked to explain by debate moderator CNN’s Wolf Blitzer who would be profiled, Santorum said, ‘The folks who are most likely to be committing these crimes.’” [CBS News, 11/23/11]
Rand Paul
Rand Paul supported reinstating a failed racial profiling program that targeted Muslims entering the country. “So one would have thought that he would not try and do Lindsey Graham’s job for him and position himself as the frontman for the notorious National Security Entry-Exit Registration System (NSEERS) that is nothing if not surveillance-on-steroids. Implemented in the wake of 9-11, the program was a naked form of racial profiling that targeted Muslims and was finally suspended in 2011. Yet, Paul commented to Breitbart: ‘I’m going to have our subcommittee and maybe committee in Homeland Security look into whether or not we could reinstitute this NSEERS [National Security Entry Exit Registration System] program.’ So what did this program do? It not only singled out Muslims entering the country for extra interrogation at the airport (which is stupid because if they pose a threat then why grant them a visa at all?), it required Muslim foreign boys and men over 16 years already in the country to personally appear before Uncle Sam’s functionaries and register. […] So the entirely predictable upshot of the program was that although it managed to obtain not a single terrorism-related conviction, it did ruin plenty of lives of peaceful Muslims caught in its dragnet.” [Reason,7/18/15]
Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham said that racial profiling of Muslims might be necessary to maintain national security. “The Maryland Democrat has sponsored the End Racial Profiling Act, which would prohibit law enforcement from using race or religion as a basis for search, seizure, or arrest for a half-dozen years. […] The only Republican to attend the Judiciary hearing, Sen. Lindsey Graham, voiced general support for the bill but said profiling groups like Muslims might be necessary to maintain national security.” [Daily Beast, 5/13/12]