Mayor compares Trump to ex-KKK leader David Duke
14th December 2015 · 0 Comments
After learning of GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump’s controversial remarks about banning all Muslims from the U.S., New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu joined a long list of elected officials from both major political parties that denounced the candidate’s recent remarks.
Earlier this month, Trump called for a “total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States” in the wake of attacks at home and abroad. Trump’s proposed ban would apply to immigrants and visitors alike.
“Donald Trump’s comments about Muslims are absolutely disgraceful. As Americans we must reject his poisonous rhetoric, which is reminiscent of David Duke’s racism. Millions of loyal Muslim Americans should not be maligned by the outrageous actions of a few. Muslims are loyal Americans who serve this nation as police officers, firefighters and in the military. We live in a nation where diversity is our greatest strength,” Landrieu said, “Mr. Trump’s brand of politics is dangerous; it makes our nation more dangerous and weakens our ability to defend against terrorists. Together, we can defeat ISIS by strengthening ties with our Muslim friends, not alienating them with ignorant, hateful statements.”
During a Capitol Hill ceremony marking the 150th anniversary of the 13th Amendment on Wednesday, President Barack Obama took a veiled swipe at Trump, who led efforts that challenged Obama’s U.S. citizenship, demanding that the nation’s first Black president present a birth certificate to the American people to prove he was born in the U.S.
At Wednesday’s gathering marking the 150th anniversary of the abolition of slavery, Obama talked about the efforts of previous generations to combat discrimination, and said Americans today must be willing to do what they did — namely, “to remember that our freedom is bound up with the freedom of others, regardless of what they look like, or where they come from, or what their last name is or what faith they practice.”
While he did not mention Trump by name, Obama said Americans will betray their past if “we were to deny the possibility of movement, the possibility of progress, if we were to let cynicism consume us and fear overwhelm us.”
Obama recounted how slavery shaped American politics and nearly tore the country apart during the Civil War.
He said the country would do a disservice to “warriors of justice” like Harriet Tubman, Frederick Douglass, President Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr., if it denies the scars of the “nation’s original sin” are still there today.
“We betray the efforts of the past if we fail to push back against bigotry in all its forms,” Obama said.
House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday said Donald Trump’s proposal to bar Muslims from entering the U.S. is “not what this party stands for and more importantly it’s not what this country stands for.”
Speaking to reporters after a closed-door GOP caucus meeting, Ryan addressed Trump’s remarks without mentioning him by name. The speaker said he doesn’t normally comment on the presidential race but was making an exception.
“Freedom of religion is a fundamental constitutional principle,” Ryan said. “This is not conservatism. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for. And more importantly, it’s not what this country stands for.”
On December 8, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest dismissed Trump as a “carnival barker” and called on his GOP presidential rivals to denounce their fellow candidate.’
“Donald Trump is unhinged,” former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said via Twitter. “His ‘policy’ proposals are not serious.”
“So far, every boundary he has pushed has worked out for him,” Ari Fleischer, who served as White House press secretary for former President George W. Bush,. “I hope GOP voters recognize this time he’s gone too far.”
Earlier this month, the National Black Church Initiative, a faith-based group representing 34,000 churches and15.4 million African Americans called on Trump to pull out of the GOP presidential race and questioned the divisive tactics he has used to become the Republican presidential frontrunner.
“Scapegoating an entire group of people is the worst form of bigotry,” the NBCI said in a statement. “Donald Trump is playing to our lowest common denominator as he has sought and continues to seek to divide us by income, race, religion and political ideology. What disturbs us the more is that there has not been a majority of people of goodwill who have stood up to denounce this dangerous rhetoric and hate-filled speech. Has our country become oblivious to this type of behavior that we forfeit the character of humanity which binds us together in the greatest nation on Earth? Has our country become immune to this type of behavior that we are willing to have the principles of free speech compromised and redefined at the expense of the integrity of American citizenry?”
This article originally published in the December 14, 2015 print edition of The Louisiana Weekly newspaper.
