Former Vice President Dick Cheney criticized Donald Trump’s plan to ban Muslim immigrants from entering the United States, saying that banning a religion “goes against everything we stand for and believe in.”
On “The Hugh Hewitt Show” Monday, host Hugh Hewitt asked Cheney, “What do you think ought to be the American policy towards welcoming people from that part of the world which is predominantly Muslim right now?”
“Well I think this whole notion that somehow we can just say no more Muslims — just ban a whole religion — goes against everything we stand for and believe in,” Cheney told Hewitt.
“I mean religious freedom’s been a very important part of our history in who we are and where we came from for a lot of people,” he said. “My ancestors got here because they were Puritans, there wasn’t anybody here then when they came.”
Cheney said a vetting process needs to be set up and that it’s crucial to revisit why ISIS exists today.
“It’s a mistaken notion. It’s a serious problem, this refugee problem is,” he said. “It’s a serious problem to make certain that the people coming in don’t represent ISIS.”
“You’ve got to set up a vetting process and that’s crucial but I think the way you’ve got to begin to deal with the problem is go back and look at why they’re here. And they’re here because of what’s going on in the Middle East, what’s going on the Middle East as a result of a U.S. vacuum, it’s a result of the rise of ISIS, civil war in Syria.”
Cheney also endorsed the proposal of establishing “safe zones” in Syria.
“I’ve heard proposals that I think makes sense that we ought to establish safety zones if you will… in the northern part of Syria where you’ve got them secured, you’ve got sufficient forces, hopefully locals, that would be there to protect the area. But that’s where people who were fleeing the terrible tragedy that’s going on in inside the Caliphate, a place where they could reside — but it also takes the pressure then off the refugee flow that move to Europe, thousands of refugees in the move here to the United States.”
“I think that makes a lot more sense than what’s happening now,” Cheney said.
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