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Donald Trump To Ban Muslims? Mike Pence Insists ‘It’s Not Trump’s Position Now’

By Trisha Faulkner
Published on: 16:50 PST, Oct 6, 2016

Mike Pence, the Republican vice presidential nominee and current Indiana governor, said on Thursday that “of course” his running mate, Donald Trump, no longer wants to ban Muslims from the United States. During an interview, Mike Pence was pressured to give his opinion on Donald Trump claiming to want to ban Muslims in the past. Despite being pressured, Pence refused to condemn or give his running mate much of a defense.

According to The Huffington Post, Mike Pence was asked about the proposal Trump had made to ban Muslims from entering the United States. This was the same ban the Indiana governor had criticized fairly aggressively just last year, before he was selected to be Trump’s running mate.

In the video below, you can hear Donald Trump giving a speech about a statement he made regarding wanting to ban Muslims from entering the United States. During the speech, Donald Trump said it was “common sense” and something that had to be done.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eh7XaJlvJIg

Trump repeated, “we have no choice” several times during the speech.

In the video below, Mike Pence says the statement that Muslims should be banned from the United States is “offensive and unconstitutional.”

The next video shows that the recent interview is not the first time Pence has been accused of backtracking on what he originally believed to be true or right to support Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

According to The Huffington Post, CNN’s Chris Cuomo made several attempts to get Mike Pence to explain why he no longer condemned what Trump had to say about wanting to ban Muslims from the United States during their back-and-forth conversation. He also asked about Trump attacking Judge Gonzalo Curiel. Trump once accused the judge of being biased because he was Mexican. At the time Trump made these comments, Pence did not hesitate to say during an interview that he thought the comments were “inappropriate.”

“Well, because it’s not Donald Trump’s position now,” was all Pence had to say about Trump’s desire to ban Muslims from the United States. He also went on to talk about how proud he was to stand next to Trump during this election.

“[I am] proud to stand with him when he says that we need to suspend immigration from countries and territories that have been compromised by terrorism.”

According to Pence, Trump’s proposal is not to ban Muslims from the United States. Instead, Trump just wants to focus on banning people from certain countries that pose a terrorist threat to the United States. Pence claims this is something he can support as he was one of the governors who was intent on keeping the Syrian refugees out of his state — Indiana.

Pence made the accusation that the media was focusing on the “oldies,” but the CNN journalist wouldn’t drop the topic. The journalist believes that Pence does not like directly responding to questions regarding the comments Trumps has made on Muslims, as well as women and Mexicans for that matter.

“I know that you have said you don’t share those positions, and now, tacitly, you are accepting those positions because you won’t speak out against them,” the journalist said. “You understand that?”

Pence evaded the question and changed the subject to accuse Hillary and Kaine of personally insulting Trump and Pence’s campaign by taking lines and comments Trump had made out of context.

“You’re going to be setting the tone as vice president and president of the United States about how we respect each other, about who matters and whether all of us matter the same way. And when somebody says things that exclude people and make them less than, it is the job of leadership to stand up against that and I know you’ve done it in the past. That’s why I’m asking you why you’re not doing it now.”

Pence responded to this by saying that when Trump becomes president not everyone is always going to agree with everything he decides to do. However, he is confident Donald Trump will continue to respect all of the people in the United States.

During the entire back-and-forth with the CNN journalist, Pence continued to stand strong with his belief that Trump is no longer focused on his desire to ban just Muslims from the United States. He wants to ban anyone who poses a threat to the United States. In a way, it was as if Pence argued it was just bad wording on Trump’s behalf.

Does Donald Trump still plan to ban Muslims from the United States? Will Pence continue to contradict things he has said in the past in order to continue to support his campaign partner? Share your thoughts on what Mike Pence has had to say about Donald Trump’s ban on Muslims in the comments section below.

[Featured Image by Angelo Merendino/Getty Images]

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