FDR’s granddaughter: ‘Reprehensible’ for Trump to invoke WWII

The granddaughter of former President Franklin Delano Roosevelt condemned GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump for invoking the internment of Japanese Americans to justify his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the United States.

“For Donald Trump to cite my grandfather and internment as a defense of his own intolerant and divisive agenda is reprehensible,” Anna Eleanor Roosevelt said in a statement.

{mosads}“The internment of thousands of Japanese Americans during World War II is a sad part of our history and, as a part of my grandfather’s administration, a terrible political decision driven by fear.”

Trump has been condemned by members of both parties for his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the country.

When asked during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” whether his plan goes against American values, the party front-runner answered, “No, because FDR did it!”

Trump has since sought to distance himself from comparisons with FDR’s internment policy and has repeatedly declined to say whether he would have supported it at the time.

Last month, the Democratic mayor of Roanoke, Va., David Bowers, invoked the internment of Japanese Americans in a call for suspending the resettlement of Syrian refugees.

“I’m reminded that Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appears that the threat of harm to America from ISIS now is just as real and serious a threat as that from our enemies then,” Bowers said in a press release. 

Bowers later apologized for his remarks.