Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders slammed Republican primary contenders Ben Carson and Donald Trump for their “abhorrent” views on Syrian refugees.
The democratic socialist said that Carson’s labeling of Syrians as “dogs” or “rabid dogs” was “disgusting” and should not be tolerated by voters or other politicians. Sanders also said Trump’s claim that he would create a system to track Muslims who live in or come to the United States was “outrageous and bigoted.” Sanders joins Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton in his comments disparaging the GOP.
“Mr. Trump should be ashamed of himself,” Sanders said. “We will not destroy ISIS by undermining the Constitution and our religious freedoms.”
He also criticized other Republican candidates for suggesting that the government should be “rounding up existing refugees and deporting them,” claiming “this is not what Americans stand for.”
Also on Friday, the Sanders campaign sent out a petition to supporters urging them to support the refugee program that would resettle 10,000 Syrians escaping violence in their home country. On Thursday, the House of Representatives voted on a plan that would make it “near impossible for the United States to continue our refugee program,” Sanders said.
“In terms of the Syrian refugee situation we are now facing, now is not the time for us to succumb to racism and bigotry,” he wrote in the petition. “In this moment, it is particularly important that we not allow ourselves to be divided by the anti-immigrant hysteria that Republican presidential candidates are ginning up.”
