A Washington Post editorial on Thursday accused the leading Republican presidential candidates, along with their supporters, of engaging in “bigotry” and “hatred” against Muslims and immigrants, following this week’s GOP debate.
During the debate, several of the candidates stated now-standard positions to crack down on refugees coming from the Middle East and take a more aggressive approach in combatting Islamic terrorism. Dozens of congressional Democrats also voted in favor of the move.
At the debate, the Post said, “ludicrous proposals went unremarked on by the Republican contestants, for whom bigotry, hatred and magical thinking are the new normal.”
The Post maintained that the Obama administration’s Syrian refugee program was not susceptible to infiltration by members of the Islamic State terrorist network, though leaders in the U.S. intelligence community have said the opposite.
The Post also compared some of the Republican voters who support the candidates to people who believe the moon landing was a hoax or that 9/11 was an inside job.
“A litmus test for presidential candidates is whether they have the spine to speak truth to the fringe,” said the Post. “By that standard, most of the current crop of Republican hopefuls fail.”
