Democrats on Tuesday began raising money off of Donald Trump’s proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
“Republican candidates attempts to try to distance themselves from Donald Trump’s un-American proposal to ban Muslims from the United States is laughable, seeing as they — along with party leadership — have refused to stand up to him, and have in fact echoed his xenophobia,” Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz said in a statement, adding “Unless they’re willing to now say that they will not support him if Trump becomes their nominee, then clearly they’re just playing political games and aren’t serious about defeating extremists.”
The DNC cited Jeb Bush’s call for screening refugees on the basis of religion, Ben Carson comparing some refugees to “rabid dogs” and Marco Rubio’s plans to close suspicious places where Muslims gather, to demonstrate that the rest of the candidates were mimicking Trump. The email blast included a button to donate money to the DNC.
The party’s front-runner, Hilary Clinton, took a similar stance condemning Trump’s “hateful comments” as both “an affront to our values” and a “threat to our national security.” Clinton’s close aide and vice chair of Hillary for America, Huma Abedin, sent a fundraising email to Clinton supporters just hours after Trump announced his policy stating that “Trump is leaning into the kind of fear of progress that very well could help him win the nomination. We have to be ready to stop him.”
Bernie Sanders, who swore never to run a negative campaign ad, sent an email to supporters condemning Trump’s comments and claiming that polls show he is “the candidate best suited to take on Donald Trump and every other Republican running for president.”
“Help me show the best of America — not the worst that Trump exemplifies. Help us win,” Sanders wrote in his fundraising pitch.
Republicans have made several attempts to distance themselves from Trump’s comments, with House Speaker Paul Ryan, RNC Chairman Reince Preibus and nearly every GOP presidential primary candidate claiming that Trump’s plans are not in coherence with the Republican Party or conservatism. But Trump, who is currently second in the Washington Examiner‘s presidential power rankings, has been undeterred in his vow to bar all Muslims from entering the country.
