Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.) on Friday said Donald Trump‘s proposed temporary ban on Muslim travel into the U.S. would not survive constitutional scrutiny.
“If I had to pick a particular position that would concern me the most, it would be the ban on Muslims,” Cole, a lawmaker close to GOP leadership, said Friday on MSNBC. “I think it’s clearly, you know, unconstitutional, it’s ill-advised, it would really hurt the U.S.
“We need a lot of Muslim friends to deal with what we’re dealing with overseas, and we have some great Muslim friends. And we ought to recognize that and be sensitive.”
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Tuesday said he is also concerned about the presumptive GOP presidential nominee’s comments regarding Muslims.
“I disagreed publicly with Trump’s statement when he made it several months ago,” he said during an interview with Yahoo! News. “It’s completely unworkable. I don’t like it at all. I disagree with it.”
McConnell added that close ties with Muslim Americans are essential for preventing radical Islamic terrorism on American soil.
“I think it’s also important for Americans to remember, or maybe know for the first time if they don’t know, that our single best source of information about potential radical Islamic terrorists in the United States is other Muslims, many of whom, most of whom, are committed, patriotic Americans. [They] frequently are the ones who let us know, you know, who in that community, might be subject to this kind of radicalization.”
A former director of the National Security Agency said last week Trump’s idea is boosting the appeal of religious extremism worldwide.
“The jihadist narrative is that there’s undying enmity between Islam and the modern world, so when Trump says they all hate us, he’s using their narrative,” Michael Hayden said during a talk at the Hay Festival. “He’s feeding their recruitment video.”