The White House said Newt Gingrich’s proposal to deport all adherents of Shariah law in the U.S. is “un-American,” and was delivered at the worst possible time.
“It sounds like he might want to consult his copy of the pocket Constitution,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters Friday. “Our nation was founded on the principle that this is a country where people could choose to worship as they please — without harassment from the government, and that is a principle that is enshrined in our Constitution and it is one that the president believes is worth protecting.
“So observations like that, proposals like that, are un-American by its very definition,” he continued. “And this is also the worst possible time for leaders or aspiring leaders to suggest that Americans start turning on each other — that’s exactly what the terrorists want us to do.”
Instead, he said U.S. leaders should “stand up and unify the country” in the wake of the attack in Nice, France Thursday that killed at least 80 people and injured nearly 200 more when an explosive-laden truck slammed into a crowd of people celebrating Bastille Day.
Trying to bring people together, not divide them, Earnest said, is “certainly the way we live up to the values that makes this the best country in the world.”
