We already knew that Donald Trump has little to no regard for such minor details as civil liberties, civil rights, and humane behavior. But even with that to consider, a statement from one of Trump’s top surrogates about his plan to require all Muslims to register with the government shows just how fundamentally un-American a Trump administration will be. This guy actually claimed that forcing Muslims to register was no different from packing Japanese-Americans off to internment camps in World War II.
Carl Higbie, a former Navy SEAL who is one of the top spokesmen for Great America PAC, a pro-Trump super PAC aimed at veterans, dropped by Fox News Channel’s “The Kelly File” on Wednesday night to discuss Trump’s proposed registry. Watch here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EiaXNxQ1w8k
Earlier, New York City mayor Bill de Blasio blasted the proposed registry as fundamentally un-American and potentially unconstitutional. But Higbie doesn’t see it that way. He told host Megyn Kelly that similar regimens have been implemented in the past, and added that immigrants “are not protected under the same constitutional rights as we are in America.”
Kelly wasn’t buying it, asking Higbie if he’d considered the prospect that some Joe Arpaio or David Clarke clone “might abuse that list” if it were ever created. Higbie claimed that while most Muslims were good people, “a small percentage” had become radicalized, and Trump believed that “we need to keep tabs on it until we can figure out what is going on.”
Higbie then really went off the deep end.
“I know the ACLU is going to challenge it, but I think it will pass. We’ve done it with Iran back a while ago. We did it during World War II with Japanese. Call it what you will, I may be wrong.”
Kelly was dumbfounded, bluntly telling Higbie that it was “the kind of stuff that gets people scared.” When Higbie said he was merely citing precedent, Kelly all but yelled at him, “You can’t be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for something the president-elect is going to do!” Higbie kept digging, saying that Trump had a duty to protect this country–and if it meant making “people who are not protected under our Constitution” register with the government, so be it.
There’s just one problem with Higbie’s precious “precedent.” It has been all but repudiated. The Supreme Court initially upheld the executive order authorizing internment in Korematsu v. United States–a case that is now one of the most harshly criticized decisions in the history of the Court. Although it has never been formally overturned, its legitimacy was all but wiped out in 1983 when a federal judge in California found that the government had knowingly submitted false information to the Supreme Court that had a bearing on its decision.
President Gerald Ford formally apologized for the internment regimen in 1976. After a presidential commission found that the program was based on pure bigotry, the surviving detainees were paid a total of $1.2 billion in compensation. Do Higbie–and Trump–want to go back to those days?
Kelly gave Higbie a chance to dig out of the hole on Thursday night. She invited Higbie to come back on her show, and invited Hassan Shibly of the Council on American-Islamic Relations as a counterpoint. Watch here.
When Kelly reminded Higbie of his reference to internment camps, Higbie claimed he made no such reference and accused Kelly of putting words into his mouth–even when Kelly replayed his remarks from the previous night.
When one of the black eyes on our country’s history is considered a defense for Trump’s fundamentally un-American plan to make Muslim immigrants register with the government, that should tell you all you need to know about how harebrained it is.
(featured image courtesy Higbie’s Facebook)
