Republican candidate Jim Gilmore attacked Donald Trump for “playing fast and loose with our Constitution” when the media mogul proposed ban on Muslims entering the U.S.
The proposal was “ill-advised,” Gilmore said in prepared remarks for a speech Wednesday evening at George Mason University.
“Just like his outrageous declaration that he would end birthright citizenship for Latinos, Donald Trump is playing fast and loose with our Constitution when he says he will prohibit members of a specific religion from coming to our nation,” Gilmore said. “I find his proposals offensive, especially coming from a candidate for president.”
“We already have one president who shows disdain for the Constitution,” Gilmore added. “We don’t need another one. Donald Trump is pandering to the anger caused by terrorism and by illegal immigration, but he goes much too far. His proposals do not reflect America.”
Gilmore was governor of Virginia from 1998 to 2002, and is the sixth presidential candidate to speak at George Mason’s “Issues Forum 2016,” hosted by the university’s Center for Politics and Foreign Relations in the School of Policy, Government, and International Affairs.
Democratic candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont; Republican candidate George Pataki, former governor of New York; and former Democratic candidates Lawrence Lessig, a Harvard professor, and Jim Webb, a former Virginia senator, all spoke there. Former Rhode Island Gov. Lincoln Chafee, whose Democratic campaign collapsed after the first debate, announced his candidacy at George Mason.
“Gov. Gilmore’s insights go beyond the presidential campaign,” said Robert Guttman, director of the Center for Politics and Foreign Relations, before the event. The center, he added, “is committed to bringing all the presidential candidates of both parties to express their views and goals to Mason students, staff and interested citizens.”
Gilmore was chair of the Republican National Committee and the National Council on Readiness and Preparedness. He is also one of two candidates remaining with military experience, as a counterintelligence agent for the Army. The other is Sen. Lindsay Graham of South Carolina.
