AP IMAGES/TONY GUTIERREZ (RALLY); AP IMAGES/DOUG STRICKLAND, CHATTANOOGA TIMES FREE PRESS (SERVICEMEN)
Other GOP presidential candidates were little
better. On Nov. 15, responding to Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton’s avoidance of the term “radical Islam” to describe Islamic State terrorists, Marco
Rubio compared Muslims to Nazis: “I don’t understand it. That would be like saying we weren’t at war
with the Nazis, because we were afraid to offend
some Germans who may have been members of the
Nazi Party, but weren’t violent themselves,” he said.
“This is a clash of civilizations.”
On Nov. 16, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie,
another GOP presidential candidate, said the
United States should not admit a single refugee
from the Syrian civil war — not even “orphans
under age 5.” He was quickly joined by more than
half of the nation’s governors, including fellow
GOP presidential candidate and Ohio Gov. John
Kasich, in saying Syrian refugees would not be welcome in their states.
Republican presidential hopefuls Ted Cruz and
Jeb Bush, meanwhile, proposed the use of religious
tests to bar Muslim Syrian refugees while admitting Christian ones. “We can’t roll the dice with
the safety of Americans and bring in people for
whom there is an unacceptable risk that they could
be jihadists coming here to kill Americans,” said
Cruz. Bu