Carl Higbie, a spokesman for the pro-Trump Great America PAC, told Megyn Kelly Wednesday that reinstating a Bush-era government registry for new immigrants from Muslim countries would be legal because “we’ve done it with Iran back a while ago” and “we did it during World War II with Japanese.”
Higbie did quickly add that internment “may be wrong,” but Kelly rightly pounced: “Come on. You’re not proposing we go back to the days of internment camps, I hope.”
“No, no, no, I’m not proposing that at all, Megyn,” Higbie replied.
Kelly then told him, “That’s the kind of stuff that gets people scared.” To which he responded, “I’m just saying there is precedent for it.”
And that’s when the host really lost it.
“You can’t be citing Japanese internment camps as precent for anything the president-elect is going to do,” she exclaimed.
“Look, the president needs to protect America first” Higbie shot back, “and if that means having people that are not protected under our Constitution have some sort of registry so we can understand—until we can identify the true threat and where it’s coming from—I support it.”
Trump surrogates are already citing Japanese internment camps from WW II as "precedent" for Muslim registry pic.twitter.com/DVnjtom0mc
— Brendan Karet (@bad_takes) November 17, 2016
As it happens, Trump told Time magazine last year that he might have supported Japanese internment in World War II. “I would have had to be there at the time to tell you, to give you a proper answer,” he said. “I certainly hate the concept of it. But I would have had to be there at the time to give you a proper answer.”