NEW YORK, July 24 (APP): Donald Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, says that recent changes to his proposed ban on foreigners entering the U.S. from countries “compromised by terrorism” is an expansion of his Muslim ban.
“I actually don’t think it’s a rollback. In fact, you could say it’s an expansion,” Trump said on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” in an interview broadcast Sunday.
Trump has changed his rhetoric from an initial temporary ban on all Muslims from entering the U.S. to one that focused on countries compromised by terrorism, which was how he phrased it in his speech accepting the Republican presidential nomination Thursday in Cleveland, Ohio.
“I’m looking now at territory,” he said Sunday.
“People were so upset when I used the word Muslim. Oh, you can’t use the word Muslim. Remember this. And I’m OK with that, because I’m talking territory instead of Muslim.”
NBC’s anchorman Chuck Todd tried to nail down the Republican nominee on specifics, such as whether such a ban would apply to countries, like Germany and France, that have suffered terrorist attacks.
Trump said he wants “extreme vetting”.
“We’re going to have tough standards,” he said.
“And if a person can’t prove that they’re from an area, and if a person can’t prove what they have to be able to prove, they’re not coming into this country. And I would stop the Syrian migration and a Syrian from coming into this country in two seconds.”
In the interview, Trump also defended Fox News founder Roger Ailes, who left the network amid accusations of sexual harassment; criticized rival Hillary Clinton’s newly named running mate, Senator Tim Kaine, for accepting gifts while Virginia’s governor; dismissed descriptions of his nomination acceptance speech as “dark,” instead calling it “optimistic”; and expressed disapproval of David Duke, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who is seeking a Senate seat from Louisiana.
