Republican presidential candidate and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush on Tuesday clarified that he believes the U.S. should continue to accept refugees from Syria.
Over the weekend, as many conservatives called for restrictions on refugees from Syria in light of the recent attacks in Paris, Bush said that the U.S. should focus on bringing over persecuted Christians from Syria.
“The great majority of refugees need to be safely kept in Syria. Which means the safe zones need to be serious,” he said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “I do think we have a responsibility to help with refugees after proper screening. And I think or focus ought to be on the Christians who have no place in Syria anymore. They’re being beheaded, they’re being executed by both sides. And I think we have a responsibility to help.”
In an interview with Bloomberg Politics’ “With All Due Respect” on Tuesday, Bush made it clear that he does not want to ban Syrian refugees from entering the U.S.
“The answer to this is not to ban people from coming,” he told Bloomberg.
He said that refugees should be vetted and that they should not enter the U.S. “if there’s any kind of concern.”
“But I don’t think we should eliminate our support for refugees,” Bush said. “It’s been a noble tradition in our country for many years.”
He said that his emphasis on Christian refugees from Syria was not a call to ban Muslim refugees from the country.
“There’s no discrimination to simply say that you want to protect religious minorities that are being exterminated,” he told Bloomberg.
A spokesman for Bush also told National Review’s Tim Alberta that Bush does not want to ban Syrian refugees from entering the U.S.
Bush spox @Timodc clarifies Bush is open to allowing in refugees – regardless of religion – “if they can be screened.”
— Tim Alberta (@TimAlberta) November 17, 2015
Bush’s stance breaks with some of his fellow Republican presidential candidates. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-TX) said that the U.S. should only accept Christian refugees from Syria, not Muslims. And both retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL) have said that the U.S. should no longer take any refugees from Syria.
