Home Global Trump's spokeswoman denies shift on Muslim ban
Trump's spokeswoman denies shift on Muslim ban
NEW YORK, June 28 (APP): Donald Trump's spokeswoman insisted Monday evening that, despite comments from the presumptive presidential nominee himself, his position on banning Muslims is in no way changing.
Trump, speaking from his new resort in Scotland over the weekend, had suggested the highly-controversial ban would no longer include all Muslims, telling reporters it "wouldn't bother" him if a Scottish Muslim entered the United States.
He later added his policy would focus mainly on "people coming from terror states."
But on Monday Spokesperson Katrina Pierson argued that Trump's proposed ban never included all Muslims, and she criticized the media for incorrectly saying it did.
She explained during a Monday night interview on CNN that the proposal only applied to Muslim immigration.
"It's only really a change if you never knew what the ban was to begin with," Pierson said It was simply for Muslim immigration and Mr. Trump is simply adding specifics to clarify what his position is, as opposed to what the media has been reporting it is.
"There is no change to this. Mr. Trump wants to stop individual from coming into this country who cannot be vetted."
In December, Trump called for a blanket ban on all Muslims entering the country in the wake of mass shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, California. Since then, he has repeated this proposal on the campaign trail and during rallies.
Following the recent mass shooting in Orlando, Florida, Trump called for a temporary ban on immigration from areas with a proven history of terrorism.
"I will use this power to protect the American people. When elected, I will suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies, until we fully understand how to end these threats," Trump said earlier this month at a national security address in New Hampshire.
Even after she was played an excerpt from the December speech which made clear that Trump's proposed ban included all Muslims, Pierson maintained that it was in the context of immigration.
"That was a line that he read from the policy.
The policy in and of itself was an immigration policy, so the context there is extremely important," Pierson said.
"Since that statement was made, Mr. Trump does not want to allow individuals to come into this country and essentially create homegrown terrorism."
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