In swipe at Gingrich, Obama rejects ‘repugnant’ call to test Muslims
July 16, 2016 2023-09-01 17:21In swipe at Gingrich, Obama rejects ‘repugnant’ call to test Muslims
President Barack Obama clobbered former House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Friday for suggesting that America should deport Muslims who profess a belief in Islamic Sharia law, telling a gathering of diplomats in Washington that the idea is ‘repugnant.’
Newt Gingrich ignited a firestorm on Thursday when he said the U.S. should test Muslims to see if they believe in Sharia law. The remarks came in the wake of the terror attack in Nice, France.
President Barack Obama on Friday issued a thinly veiled rebuke of former House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s call for the U.S. to test every person with a Muslim background to see if they believe in Sharia law and deport those who do.
| President Barack Obama speaks about the attack in Nice, France, Friday, July 15, 2016, during a Diplomatic Corps Reception in the East Room of the White House in Washington. |
“In the wake of last night’s attacks, we’ve heard more suggestions that all Muslims in America be targeted, tested for their beliefs, some deported or jailed,” Obama said in remarks from the White House. “And the very suggestion is repugnant and an affront to everything that we stand for as Americans.”
Obama’s implicit critique of Gingrich was a part of broader point he made Friday in response to the Nice attack, which he called “sickening.” …”And those impulses, when we do not speak out against them and build institutions to protect people from those impulses, they can take over. They can be unleashed, so all of us have responsibilities, not just a few.”… “It sounds like he may need to consult his copy of the pocket Constitution as well,” Earnest said at a White House press briefing, adding that “proposals like that, rhetoric like that, is un-American by its very definition.”
Gingrich’s original comments came on Thursday night during an interview on Fox News, hours after a truck rampaged through a Bastille Day celebration in Nice.
| Former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich was on Fox New’s Hannity, on July 14, discussing the Nice attack when he said we need to test Muslims and deport those who believe in Sharia law |
“Let me be as blunt and direct as I can be: Western civilization is in a war. We should frankly test every person here who is of a Muslim background, and if they believe in Sharia, they should be deported,” Gingrich said in an interview with Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “Sharia is incompatible with Western civilization. Modern Muslims who have given up Sharia, glad to have them as citizens. Perfectly happy to have them next door.”
Gingrich defended those comments Friday during an appearance on Facebook Live but acknowledged that “deportation is impossible” with American citizens.
Source: CNN
