CNN’s Jake Tapper challenged Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., on Tuesday for condemning President Trump’s travel ban, but not doing the same when the Obama administration added similar restrictions on travelers coming from various countries.
The discussion began as Tapper pointed to a law signed by former President Barack Obama in 2015 that restricted travel to the U.S. for people who lived in or visited Iran, Iraq, Sudan, and Syria. The CNN host also noted a 2016 add-on from the Obama administration which restricted travelers from Libya, Somalia, and Yemen.
“This one did not start that way and was not the origin or the purpose of it. So to try to say that it is somehow equivalent or the same, I could not accept that, as a false equivalency,” Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress, said.
“I’m not saying they are the same thing … but there is a tremendous amount of overlap when it comes to countries affected and the added restrictions on travel under the Obama administration and the ban on travel in the Trump administration,” Tapper said.
Ellison said the difference is that Trump’s ban is based on religion instead of being rooted in legitimate national security interests.
“You know, let me tell you. I regard that as a Trump talking point. Because the truth is that the President Obama never said we’ll ban people based on religion and it was rooted in factors that had to do with legitimate national security interests,” Ellison said.
“Why don’t we take Trump at his word?” Ellison said. “He said it was a Muslim ban.”
