Jeb Bush calls Donald Trump's treatment of Muslims 'just wrong'


Countering Donald Trump's proposed plans to establish special IDs for Muslims, put those of the Islamic faith in a database, and close mosques, fellow GOP presidential candidate Jeb Bush spoke frankly during a Friday appearance on CNBC, calling such ideas manipulative and weak.
"You talk about internment, you talk about closing mosques, you talk about registering people — that's just wrong," Bush said. "It's not a question of toughness. It's manipulating people's angst and their fears. That's not strength; that's weakness." The controversy over accepting Syrian refugees arose in the wake of the Paris terror attacks. Though all of the identified attackers so far have been French and Belgian nationals, the tragedy has raised fears that terrorists from Syria could slip into the U.S. with the flow of refugees.
Bush warned against abandoning American values while trying to navigate President Obama's highly divisive plan to accept 10,000 refugees in 2016. "There are things that are important as it relates to the values that we have as a country that make us special and unique [...] and we will never abandon them in the pursuit of this fight," Bush said.
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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.
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