Mike Honda Slams Trump Supporter's Comments On Japanese Internment
SAN JOSE (CBS SF) – Rep. Mike Honda, who survived living in a Japanese internment camp during World War II, is condemning a Donald Trump supporter who said internment could be used as a "precedent" for registering Muslims.
Honda (D-San Jose) reacted to comments made by Carl Higbie, a spokesperson for a pro-Trump Super PAC, who appeared on Fox News Wednesday night.
When host Megyn Kelly asked Higbie about President-elect Trump's advisors looking at a registry for Muslims, he said that it would be legal.
"And we've done it with Iran back a while ago. We did it during World War II with Japanese," Higbie said. "I'm just saying, there's a precedent for and I am not saying I agree."
Kelly expressed disbelief at Higbie's comments, saying "You can't be citing Japanese internment camps as precedent for anything the President-elect is going to do."
Higbie responded, "Look, the President needs to protect America first. 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 they are coming from, I support it."
In a statement on Thursday, Honda said, "These remarks are beyond disturbing. This is fear, not courage. This is hate, not policy."
"The Trump administration is showing they have not learned from our history when they suggest we go back to one of its darkest chapters. No one should go through what my family and 120,000 innocent people suffered regardless of their race or religion or any other way they would choose to try and divide us," Honda went on to say.
Honda spent much of his early childhood at an internment camp in Colorado.
The eight-term Democratic Congressman will be leaving office in January after losing to Ro Khanna in the November election.