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Donald Trump, appearing on CNN Tuesday, argued that his plan to bar Muslims from entering the United States is necessary given the current reality.
“We are at war,” the candidate told New Day host Chris Cuomo multiple times during the interview. “Chris, we are at war with radical Islamic terrorism. We are at war, whether you like it or don’t like it,” said Trump.
Cuomo countered that we are not at war with an entire religion, but a small segment within it.
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Trump cited Center for Security Policy and Pew Research polls to back up his claim that the number of Muslims who wish harm on America is substantial. According to the former, 25 percent of Muslims living in the U.S. agreed with the statement that “violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as part of the global jihad.”
The CNN host challenged the authenticity of the Center for Security Policy poll, but not the Pew Poll from 2007, which found 13 percent of American Muslims felt suicide attacks were justified.
“We have people out there, who want to do great damage to our country, whether it’s 25 percent or 10 percent or five percent, it is too much…They want our buildings to come down, they want our cities to be crushed. They are living within our country, and many of them are outside of our country,” said Trump.
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The candidate likened his proposal to some of those taken by Franklin Delano Roosevelt during World War II against “enemy aliens,” including those of German, Italian and Japanese ancestry living in the United States. Tens of thousands were rounded up for questioning, with approximately 30,000 ultimately interned for varying lengths of time during the war.
“Look at what F.D.R. did many years ago, and he’s one of the most respected presidents,” Trump said during an interview on Good Morning America on Tuesday. The candidate stopped short of advocating for internment camps.
Trump emphasized multiple times during his CNN interview that any action taken would be temporary, until “representatives can figure out what is going on.”
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His “total and complete” ban of Muslims coming into the country would not apply to Muslim Americans and Muslims already legally living in the United States, the candidate told Fox News on Monday.
Tim Newman, one of the thousands attending a Trump rally Monday night in Charleston, S.C., where the candidate publicly announced his plan, said though he does not agree with it in its entirety, he still supports Trump.
The 51-year-old Marine Corps vet, who lost part of his leg serving in the Middle East, told CNN, “I spent four-and-a-half years in Iraq before I got hurt and there’s a lot of great Muslim people on the planet,” adding that he fought for the religious freedoms the U.S. Constitution guarantees.
Hopefully Trump, who prides himself on his negotiating talent, will push “a hugely radical idea” and then settle “for what the country will allow him to do,” Newman said.
“Somewhere along the way there’s going to be a meeting of the minds, and the answer’s going to be somewhere in the middle of this,” he said.
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