Donald Trump on Saturday tried to back away from his support for a government database to track Muslims in the United States, an idea that drew sharp rebukes from his Republican presidential rivals and disbelief from legal experts.
Trump said the idea that he would implement a database as a way to follow Muslim populations was not his.
“I didn’t suggest a database — a reporter did,” Trump tweeted Friday. “We must defeat Islamic terrorism & have surveillance, including a watch list, to protect America.”
I didn't suggest a database-a reporter did. We must defeat Islamic terrorism & have surveillance, including a watch list, to protect America
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2015
An NBC News reporter asked the Trump Thursday night whether there should be a “database system that tracks Muslims” in the country. Trump said “there should be a lot of systems beyond databases” and and then discussed the U.S. border and building a wall across the border with Mexico. When asked whether the database was something a Trump White House would implement, the candidate said,“Oh, I would certainly implement that — absolutely.”
In a separate discussion later that night, he was asked by an NBC reporter to explain the difference between a Muslim database in the United States and the registry of Jews that once existed in Nazi Germany. Trump repeatedly replied, “You tell me. You tell me.”
Donald Trump is ratcheting up his rhetoric about American Muslims, saying there’s precedent for monitoring some mosques amid the recent terror wave, and said, “That’s why we’re going to hell we’re so politically incorrect.”
Get updates from The Cardinal ALL NEWS FEEDS on Facebook. Just ‘LIKE’ the ‘Arlington Cardinal Page (become a fan of our page). The updates cover all posts and sub-category posts from The Cardinal — Arlingtoncardinal.com. You can also limit feeds to specific categories. See all of The Cardinal Facebook fan pages at Arlingtoncardinal.com/about/facebook …