Tuesday on MSNBC’s “Andrea Mitchell Reports,” while discussing presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s proposed temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States, Sen. Tim Kaine (D-VA) declared such a ban would “subvert American values.”
Kaine said, “It really troubles me. You got a guy in Donald Trump who wants to be the commander in chief, but who says repeatedly the American military is a disaster. Now I got 1.6 million people serving in the America military and they volunteered in the time of war to do so. I want a commander in chief who talks about them with respect and gratitude, not disrespect and contempt. He wants to be the nation’s chief diplomat and he’s going around saying we are going to keep Muslims out, and even the First Amendment of Constitution, which was written by a Virginian, James Madison, basically says everybody in this country can worship as they please and they won’t be preferred or punished of the choice they make about their religious beliefs. For a president to basically say it is time to turn the First Amendment on its head and start to punish people if they are a part of a certain religion. That would subvert American values. Of course, our troops are out defending those values everyday. This election is high stakes. It is about America defining itself even more than it’s about the particular candidates.”
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