The Republican challenging House Speaker Paul Ryan said this week that the US should debate deporting all Muslims from the country.

“I’m suggesting we have a discussion about it. That’s for sure,” Paul Nehlen said on 560 AM’s “Morning Answer” in Chicago, when asked whether he would support deporting every Muslim from the country. “I am absolutely suggesting we figure out how do we, we — here’s what we should be doing. We should be monitoring every mosque. We should be monitoring all social media.”

Nehlen’s longshot bid against Ryan garnered more attention this week after Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump thanked him on Twitter for his support. Trump later declined to endorse Ryan, although Ryan said Thursday he still supports Trump, despite some sharp language distancing himself from the Republican nominee. In December, Trump unveiled a plan to temporarily ban Muslims from immigrating to the United States.

The Nehlen campaign did not immediately return a request for comment Thursday. A Ryan campaign spokesman pointed to Ryan’s previous comments condemning Trump’s proposed Muslim ban. After he endorsed Trump, Ryan told reporters in June that he still opposed the ban. Earlier in his interview Monday, Nehlen said he did not think that Muslims could be trusted to abide by the U.S. Constitution because of the existence of Sharia Law. Trump’s views of Muslims in the US have reemerged as a campaign issue since Khizr Khan, the father of a slain US Muslim soldier, took the stage at the Democratic convention last week, and have led to turmoil inside the GOP and his own campaign.

Trump aide Katrina Pierson accused Khan Wednesday of supporting Sharia law, even though Khan has specifically said he does not.

Source: CNN