TRANSCRIPT: Ted Cruz Talks to George Stephanopoulos about Muslim Surveillance Proposal
The comments were made on "Good Morning America."
— -- Texas senator and Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz spoke with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos Wednesday about his proposal to patrol Muslim neighborhoods in the United States in the wake of the terrorist attacks in Brussels this week.
The interview aired on “Good Morning America.” Below is a transcript:
GEORGE STEPHANOPULOS: Senator, your proposal to have police patrol Muslim neighborhoods is drawing a lot of fire from John Kasich, Bernie Sanders calls it unconstitutional, Hillary Clinton offensive and dangerous.
TED CRUZ: Well let’s start with reflecting on what happened yesterday in Brussels. All of us, our thoughts and prayers are with the families with those who were murdered, of those who were injured, including at least three Americans, three Mormon missionaries, who were among those who were injured. And yesterday reminded everyone that we are facing a war from radical Islamic terrorism. President Obama, Hillary Clinton, they refuse to acknowledge, they refuse even to say the words radical Islamic terrorism.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But how is targeting Muslim neighborhoods constitutional?
CRUZ: What we should be targeting is radical Islamic terrorism and the political correctness of this administration, they refuse to acknowledge that we are facing a global jihad from radical Islamic terrorism, indeed after just about after every one of these attacks, whether Paris or whether San Bernardino and certainly coming after Brussels, president Obama goes on national television and lectures Americans on Islamophobia. Enough is enough. We need a commander in chief who will protect this country.
STEPHANOPOULOS: Your proposal would target all Muslims, not just radicalists.
CRUZ: No it would not at all. What it would do, is it would restore common sense, pro-active policing, pro-active law enforcement, pro-active national security to make sure, here in New York City under Mayor Bloomberg there was a pro-active policing program to work cooperatively with the Muslim community, to prevent radicalization.
STEPHANOPOULOS: The police said it never generated made a lead or triggered an investigation
CRUZ: Look you’re right that the political efforts of Mayor de Blasio cancelled that program. They said it, they were not willing to actively work to stop radical Islamic terrorism and that political correctness, listen it’s manifested with President Obama and Hillary Clinton, when they want to bring tens of thousands of Syrian Muslim refugees to America despite the fact that ISIS says that they intend to infiltrate those refugees, to send jihadists to murder Americans and the head of the FBI James Comey who as you know was appointed by Barack Obama has told us they cannot vet those refugees. We need a commander-in-chief who is serious about protecting this country and I tell you I will apologize to nobody for how vigorous I will be fighting radical Islamic terrorism, leading the effort to utterly defeat and destroy ISIS and to keep America safe. And I think people are fed up with a president who puts politics ahead of protecting the homeland.
