Donald Trump‘s spokeswoman says the presumptive Republican presidential nominee has not altered his position on banning Muslims from entering the United States.
Katrina Pierson argued Monday that Trump’s proposed ban never included all Muslims, and she condemned the media for incorrectly saying it did. She explained during a Monday night interview on CNN that the proposal only applied to Muslim immigration.
“It’s only really a change if you never knew what the ban was to begin with,” Pierson said.
“It was simply for Muslim immigration, and Mr. Trump is simply adding specifics to clarify what his position is, as opposed to what the media has been reporting it is.
“There is no change to this. Mr. Trump wants to stop individual from coming into this country who cannot be vetted.”
In December, Trump called for a blanket ban on all Muslims entering the country in the wake of mass shootings in Paris and San Bernardino, Calif. Since then, he has repeated this proposal on the campaign trail and during rallies.
Following the recent mass shooting in Orlando, Fla., Trump called for a temporary ban on immigration from areas with “a proven history of terrorism.”
“I will use this power to protect the American people. When elected, I will suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies, until we fully understand how to end these threats,” Trump said earlier this month at a national security address in New Hampshire.
Even after she was played an excerpt from the December speech which made clear that Trump’s proposed ban included all Muslims, Pierson maintained that it was in the context of immigration.
“That was a line that he read from the policy. The policy in and of itself was an immigration policy, so the context there is extremely important,” Pierson said.
“Since that statement was made, Mr. Trump does not want to allow individuals to come into this country and essentially create homegrown terrorism.”