Story highlights
Rand Paul is drawing only a small distinction between Donald Trump's plans to ban Muslim immigrants and his own
"You can go too far in generalizing and sort of blaming all Muslims, but you can go too far in saying, this has nothing to do with a radicalization of a religion," Paul said
Rand Paul is drawing only a small distinction between Donald Trump’s much-maligned plan to ban Muslim immigrants and his own.
In an interview with CNN’s Jake Tapper on “The Lead” Wednesday, the Kentucky senator – who has often tried to revive his sagging presidential bid by attacking Trump – said he could understand the need for a travel moratorium from countries that pose a security threat, almost all of which are majority-Muslim.
Paul’s plan is to institute a moratorium on entry to the U.S. from 33 countries that pose a terrorism threat. Trump said Monday he would ban all Muslims from coming to the United States given the threat from Islamic terrorism.
“I think all of us, no matter Republican, Democrat, liberal, conservative, I think we all could be for a little more scrutiny on who comes to visit,” said Paul, who has identified with the libertarian movement.
“You can go too far in generalizing and sort of blaming all Muslims, but you can go too far in saying this has nothing to do with a radicalization of a religion,” Paul said, explaining what he said was the country’s broken visa system. “We do need to press pause and say, ‘Let’s get a better grip on what’s been going on.’”