Clinton rebukes Trump, GOP for Muslim remarks in open letter

Hillary Clinton rebuked Donald Trump for his controversial proposal to bar Muslims from entering the country and sought to frame the entire GOP presidential field as extremists on the issue in an open letter posted on Medium late Tuesday.

“Donald Trump has made a name for himself in this election by trafficking in prejudice and paranoia,” Clinton wrote. “Now he says he wants to stop all Muslims from entering the United States. It’s a shameful idea. It’s also dangerous. At a time when America should be doing everything we can to fight radical jihadists, Mr. Trump is supplying them with new propaganda. He’s playing right into their hands.”

Late Monday, Trump ignited controversy for saying the U.S. should shut its borders to Muslim tourists, immigrants and refugees until elected leaders can figure out “where this hatred comes from.”

{mosads}Republicans have been nearly unanimous in condemning Trump’s remarks. 

Speaker Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) have denounced Trump, as have most of the GOP presidential candidates and party leaders from Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus on down.

Still, Clinton sought to highlight past remarks from some of the Republican presidential candidates to argue that Trump’s views are within the mainstream of the party.

Clinton pointed to Ben Carson’s remarks that a Muslim proponent of Sharia Law should not be president; to Sen. Marco Rubio’s statement that some mosques disseminating extremist ideologies should be closed; to statements made by former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Sen. Ted Cruz advocating for a religious test for Syrian refugees seeking to resettle in the U.S.; and to New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie’s remark that the U.S. shouldn’t accept even women and children refugees from Syria.

“Their language may be more veiled than Mr. Trump’s, but their ideas aren’t so different,” Clinton wrote. 

“When you take a step back and see what the Republican field as a whole says about Muslims — not just one or two candidates for president, but nearly all of them — it’s hard to take seriously their attempts to distance themselves from Mr. Trump. He’s just articulating the logical conclusion of what the rest of them have been saying.”


Clinton argued that the “vast majority of Muslims here and abroad are on our side in this fight” and that the GOP’s rhetoric “sets us back in the fight against radical jihadists.”

“Radical jihadists are telling people that the United States hates Muslims — and there’s Donald Trump on TV screaming about how he’s going to keep all Muslims out,” Clinton wrote. “He’s strengthening the terrorists’ argument.”

The former secretary of State also argued that the GOP’s insistence that President Obama and the Democrats use the term “radical Islamic terrorism” to described acts carried out by groups such as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) “drives the exact narrative the jihadists want to advance: that we’re at war with an entire religion.”

Clinton closed the letter with a direct appeal to Muslims in the U.S.

“To Muslim Americans: What you’re hearing from Trump and other Republicans is absolutely, unequivocally wrong,” she wrote. “It’s inconsistent with our values as a nation — a nation which you are helping to build. This is your country too. I’m proud to be your fellow American. And many, many other Americans feel the same way.”