Huckabee, Santorum, Graham, Pataki Spar Over Radical Islam In Undercard Debate

LAS VEGAS — In response to the attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, the four Republican presidential candidates in Tuesday’s so-called undercard debate here spent most of the evening debating what to do about the threat of radical Islam.

Asked about GOP frontrunner Donald Trump’s call to restrict all Muslims from entering the United States, South Carolina Sen. [crscore]Lindsey Graham[/crscore] and former New York Gov. George Pataki expressed disgust.

“Donald Trump has done the one single thing you cannot do — declare war on Islam itself,” an exasperated Graham said, arguing the proposal doesn’t make the country safer but pleases terrorists. “ISIL would be dancing in the streets, they just don’t believe in dancing.”

Pataki said restricting people because of their religion is “un-American, it it unconstitutional and it is wrong.”

But former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee both said they disagreed with Trump’s plan, but praised the New York businessman for raising the issue of Muslim immigration.

“What Donald Trump was saying was nothing against Muslims,” Santorum said. “His comment was against this administration that doesn’t have a policy to properly vet people coming into this country. Let’s just be honest about what’s being talked about. I know people will pile on because it makes sense to pile on maybe from the polls. But he brings up a legitimate issue.”

Said Huckabee: “What he has done — and I don’t think a lot of people understand — he has touched a nerve because people are angry and afraid that we are facing an enemy that this administration refuses to acknowledge, refuses to want to go fight.”

The earlier debate — made up of the candidates who aren’t polling high enough to be included in the later primetime debate — took place at the Venetian hotel and casino in Las Vegas and was hosted by CNN.

During the debate, Pataki called for monitoring “certain Muslim communities” in a way that is “consistent with our constitution, consistent with our civil rights, so they can have the intelligence as to where these sermons are being given and who is being radicalized.”

“I think it’s very important that we do everything in our power to prevent radicalization of Americans right here,” Pataki said. “And it happening. Not just overseas but it’s happening here from mosques, on social media.”

Asked if he thinks it violates constitutional rights for the government to listen to sermons, Huckabee said: “No, it does not violate their First Amendment rights to have someone go and listen to their sermons. You can to any church in America, it’s a public place and you can listen.”

Huckabee explained that his view is if the government finds anything “nefarious” while listening in on mosques than “you get a search warrant, you do whatever you have to do — that’s all protected under the Constitution.”

On the issue of guns and terrorism, Santorum said he’s against the idea of directly restricting people on the government’s terrorist watch list from being able to purchase guns.

“I don’t we think should be able to deny someone’s constitutional rights based on a list kept by the government that nobody knows how they get on it or how they get off it,” Santorum said.

“When someone applies for a gun,” Santorum said, “you do a background check. If you’re on the terrorist watch list, guess what very well may happen: you may get denied that. That’s the discretion of the ATF in making that kind of decision. I want to leave that discretion.”

Graham, an Air Force veteran, chided those suspicious of all Muslims.

“There are at least 3,500 American Muslims serving in the armed forces,” Graham said. “Thank you for your service. You are not the enemy. Your religion is not the enemy.”

Added Graham: “Leave the faith alone, go after the radicals that [want] to kill us all.”

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