Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Secretary of State John Kerry said Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s calls to ban the entry of Muslims into the United States endangers national security because it exhibits a presidential candidate’s the “willingness to discriminate against a religion.”
Host George Stephanopoulos asked, “Finally, Mr. Secretary, Donald Trump’s comments about banning the entry of Muslims into the United States rocking around the world this — this week. How have his comments affected America’s standing in the world? And do you agree with your colleagues in the administration who said they are endangering national security?”
Kerry said, “Well, it does endanger national security because it exhibits an attitude by one American who is running for the highest office of our land, about a willingness to discriminate against a religion. I mean that is against our constitution and it’s against who we are as Americans. We have all kinds of ways of protecting protections into the programs by which people come into our nation. But to outright ban people because they belong to one particular religion, that’s just stunningly contrary to the fundamental values of our nation, which were built on tolerance. In the House of Representatives, on one of those panels of the dais, where a president speaks from to deliver the state of the union inscribed in that panel is the word ‘tolerance.’ And it seems to me that Mr. Trump’s statement is wholly and totally without recognition of the true American spirit and values and certainly tolerance.”
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