Wednesday on MSNBC’s “All In,” Rep. Steve King (R-IA), was asked to weigh in on GOP front-runner Donald Trump’s proposal to halt allowing Muslims into the United States.
King, a supporter of Sen. Ted Cruz’s (R-TX) bid for his party’s presidential nomination, said that though he did not necessarily support Trump’s proposal, it has opened up “space” for an important debate that might not have otherwise been had because of the confines of political correctness.
However later in that segment, King was asked by host Chris Hayes about his Democratic colleague, Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), who is Muslim and what he meant by Ellison’s refusal to renounce Sharia Law. King replied by explaining how he saw Sharia Law and the U.S. Constitution to be in conflict with one another.
“Well, when Congressman Ellison takes an oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States, and also — you’ll get to ask him,” King said. “I’m glad he is going to be there to answer this question. And it is, which is superior? The Constitution or Sharia law? And in Sharia law, by their teachings, is superior to everything else. It replaces everything else. It replaces the Constitution itself. So you can’t be assimilated into the American civilization and accept Sharia law as being superior to our Constitution. It’s antithetical to Americanism.
In the following segment, Hayes asked Ellison to respond to King’s claim, to which Ellison said Islam and being a patriotic American were not at odds.
(h/t RCP Video)
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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