LAS VEGAS — Nothing that happened during the undercard debate Tuesday evening will change the trajectory of the Republican primary campaign. But that doesn’t mean nothing significant happened.
The four underdog candidates that participated — Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former New York Gov. George Pataki — remain long shots for the GOP’s 2016 crown. But the CNN cablecast revealed the extent that front-runner Donald Trump is dominating the media environment that has gone a long way toward shaping the campaign.
Graham declined to complain about the questioning after the debate, saying he believed the debate was productive because it focused on national security. “This was the best debate,” he said. “This was a debate about, what we would do as commander-in-chief.”
The prime time warm-up act, at The Venetian hotel and casino along the Las Vegas strip, also showed Trump’s influence on his competitors as it relates to their approach to Islam and the terrorist threat. How?
The first four questions that moderator Wolf Blitzer asked the candidates (but not only the first four questions) were about Trump’s proposal, made in the wake of the terrorist attacks in San Bernardino, Calif., by Islamic radicals, to ban all Muslims from entering the United States. And although Trump came under heavy criticism by Graham and Pataki, Huckabee and Santorum appeared to adopt Trump’s claim that Americans should be suspicious by all Muslims.
Santorum suggested that Islam is a different sort of religion, citing the political component of Sharia law, and said therefore that Muslims might not be eligible for freedom of religion protections under the First Amendment. Huckabee said during the debate that he agreed, but told reporters afterward that he did not intend to indicate his agreement with Santorum’s statements. Regardless, Santorum’s opinion is likely to go over well with conservative Republicans in Iowa, according to recent polls, and could explain why Huckabee and Santorum, two former Iowa caucus victors who have put all their 2016 hopes on winning their again, were willing to go that far.
“The fact of the matter is, Islam is different,” Santorum said during the debate. “I know this is going to come as a shock to a lot of people, and I mean the sincerely. Islam is not just a religion. It is also a political governing structure. The fact of the matter is, Islam is a religion, but it is also Sharia law, it is also a civil government, it is also a form of government. And, so, the idea that that is protected under the First Amendment is wrong.
“And, in fact, that political structure is what is the big problem. The imposition of Sharia law adherence to fundamental Islam as it was practiced in the Seventh Century,” Santorum continued. “There has to be a line drawn.” But if adopted by GOP broadly, it would move the party beyond arguments that U.S. national security should focus on protecting Americans from radical Islamic terrorism to one that urges a shield against Islam, period. That could have an impact on the debate over national security going forward, both in the Republican primary and in the general election against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton.
