The chair of the Democratic National Committee said Wednesday that Republicans are not doing enough to repudiate Donald Trump’s comments on Muslims, calling their criticism of the 2016 front-runner “mealy-mouthed.”
“Our responsibility as Americans … is to sound the alarm bell here,” Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz told CNN’s Jim Sciutto.
She said Republicans are not adequately speaking out against Trump’s “outrageous proposal” to block foreign Muslims from entering the United States.
“It cries out for a unified condemnation, which has not come in any shape or form from the Republican side,” the Florida Democrat said. “Mealy-mouthed criticism that has come from some of the presidential candidates and unfortunately the Republican Party chairman, (Reince) Priebus, is outrageous. What they need to do is unequivocally state, each one of their candidates for president, that they would not support this man if he were their nominee.”
Many Republicans quickly criticized Trump over his comments.
House Speaker Paul Ryan called the proposals unconstitutional and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said such a policy would be “completely inconsistent with American values.”
“We need to aggressively take on radical Islamic terrorism but not at the expense of our American values,” Priebus said Tuesday.
But none of the candidates or leaders who called out Trump said they would not support him if he became the Republican nominee.
Wasserman Schultz predicted Democrats would win the White House next year regardless.
“The Republican Party stands for turning the clock back to McCarthyism,” she said. “God forbid this man would become president and would actually implement the outrageous proposal.”