Last updated on July 17th, 2023 at 09:18 pm
Mike Pence was asked on MSNBC’s Morning Joe if the Trump campaign’s position is still to ban Muslims based on their religion, and he denied it saying “Of course not.”
Yet, the ban-Muslims policy is still on Donald Trump’s website and Trump mailers sent out this week brag about the immigration “pause”.
Mike Pence asked point-blank if the campaign's position is still to ban Muslims based on their religion. "Of course not," he replies.
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— Jenna Johnson (@wpjenna) October 6, 2016
Donald Trump’s “Donald J. Trump Statement on Preventing Muslim Immigration” starts off definitively, “Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.
Trump is calling for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims” entering the U.S. until he can figure out what’s going on, and God only knows how long that will take since the entire Republican Party is pretending there aren’t any rules about Syrian refugees.
For instance, there is already a security test — in spite of the many Republicans, including Speaker Paul Ryan, pretending there isn’t.
It involves the Department of Defense, the FBI, the DHS, et al, all of which know more about national security than Donald Trump. Deputy State Department Spokesman Mark Toner called the Syrian refugee security process “the most stringent security process for anyone entering the United States.â€
Syrian refugees go through even more forms of screening than other refugees and even further forms of screening are being examined, though these details are classified.
Because of Republican ignorance regarding these procedures, Secretary of State John Kerry and Secretary of Homeland Security Jeh Johnson were forced in November of 2015 to send letters to all state governors and to the mayor of D.C., even after the White House already had a phone call with governors around the country during which they explained the procedures. They are also on the internet for anyone to read. Yikes.
Republicans just put their fingers over their ears and eyes and cry as the grown ups shove facts in front of their faces. They have to do this in order to keep up the facade of being the “strong” party and in order to continue running campaigns based on hatred of Muslims.
Oh, yeah, and that hasn’t abated. For proof, I give you an Ohio GOP Trump mailer from this week that brags about putting a “pause” on immigration from countries that sponsor terrorism:
Got a Donald Trump mailer addressed to me in Ohio this week, paid for by the New York Republican State Committee. pic.twitter.com/Hfdo2CXYr5
— Nick Castele (@NickCastele) October 6, 2016
A close up of the ban brag:
Once again, Mike Pence continues his campaign strategy of just outright lying and denying. In Pence’s mind, he can just make up a better Donald Trump and you won’t care that he’s lying to hide the hate and ignorance they both stand for.
It’s not that Mike Pence is embarrassed, after all he has a record of hate going after LGBT people and women. It’s that he doesn’t want to admit what he and Trump stand for. He knows the majority of America wouldn’t like it, which begs the question if they feel so strongly about their hateful policies why don’t they have the courage to be honest about them.
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Sarah has been credentialed to cover President Barack Obama, then VP Joe Biden, 2016 Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, and exclusively interviewed Speaker Nancy Pelosi multiple times and exclusively covered her first home appearance after the first impeachment of then President Donald Trump.
Sarah is two-time Telly award winning video producer and a member of the Society of Professional Journalists.
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