Pence disavows Muslim ban
Pence, the governor of Indiana, spoke with a number of media outlets on Thursday and said Trump no longer supported a ban on Muslims entering or immigrating to America. Why? “Because that’s not Donald Trump’s position now,” he told CNN.
Trump made a policy announcement last December in which he said that, due to national security fears, he would ban Muslim immigrants or visitors from entering the U.S. until “we are able to determine and understand” jihadism.
At the time it was widely criticized and immigration and law experts said such a ban would be challenged in the courts. Those experts said it would be ruled as unconstitutional by the Supreme court and struck down.
Pence hadn’t supported a ban on Muslims entering the U.S. before joining Trump’s ticket – he called it “offensive” – then appeared to support it after becoming the GOP’s V.P. nominee, but now does not support it.
Trump and abortion
Trump and Pence have differed on other fundamental issues, like abortion, where Trump said a woman should be punished for an abortion. Pence is against abortion but does not support punishing women who make “the heartbreaking decision” to end a pregnancy.
In the V.P. debate Wednesday night against Democrat Tim Kaine, Pence said that Trump would not support legislation to punish women. However, when pressed by Kaine, he was unable to verify it. Trump is on record as saying there should be “some form of punishment” for women who have an abortion.
Pence called changing their view on allowing Muslims to enter and to immigrate to America a clarification. In a related issue, while Trump has called for the creating of a “deportation force” to round up illegal immigrants, Pence said that such a force exists already. “It’s called Immigration and Customs Enforcement,” he told MSNBC’s ‘Morning Joe.’
There’s been no reclarification of Trump’s plan to build a wall along the roughly 2,000 mile long Mexican border.
