Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal (R) on Monday criticized NBC’s Chuck Todd for asking Republican presidential candidates like Ben Carson whether they would support a Muslim candidate for president, and then offered the assurances he would need from a Muslim candidate.
“This is a dumb game that the press is playing. It is an absurd hypothetical question,” he said in a Monday statement.
But he added that he would “indulge the media for a moment and play their gotcha game.”
“If you can find me a Muslim candidate who is a Republican, who will fight hard to protect religious liberty, who will respect the Judeo-Christian heritage of America, who will be committed to destroying ISIS and radical Islam, who will condemn cultures that treat women as second class citizens and who will place their hand on the Bible and swear to uphold the Constitution, then yes, I will be happy to consider voting for him or her,” he said. “If you can’t, I’ll settle for voting for a Christian Governor from Louisiana.”
When asked on Sunday whether he would support a Muslim presidential candidate, retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson said he “would not advocate that we put a Muslim in charge of this nation.” He stood by his statement later in the day, noting that he doesn’t think “Sharia is consistent with the Constitution of this country.”
When asked about Carson’s comment by Iowa Public Television, Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said it would be unconstitutional to bar a Muslim candidate from the presidential race.
