Ryan: Congress would block a full-fledged Muslim ban

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) defended Donald Trump’s controversial travel ban Wednesday, and insisted that Congress would block the president if he tried to enact a full-fledged ban on Muslims entering the United States.

“I disagree with it now and disagreed with it then, but that’s not what this is,” Ryan said in an interview with PBS NewsHour’s Judy Woodruff set to air Wednesday night.

{mosads}“I and many others around here would oppose” such a religious test, he said.

But he called it “totally reasonable and rational” to pause the country’s refugee program to improve vetting standards and weed out terrorists who may have infiltrated refugee populations.

In doing so, he reiterated his support for Trump’s controversial executive order that would halt all refugee entrances for 120 days and ban travelers from seven Muslim-majority nations for 90 days.

In the same breath, the Speaker warned that the contentious debate over Trump’s unilateral action is damaging to the country and national security.

“This isn’t a Muslim ban. If it were, I would be opposed to it,” Ryan told Woodruff. “But the rhetoric surrounding it makes it look like it’s ban on religion or a religious test, and I think that rhetoric is inflammatory and does not help us.”

The Justice Department is appealing a lower court’s decision to temporarily stop the Trump administration from enforcing the order. A decision in that matter is expected in the next few days.