Today, TPM reports that Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain continues to distance himself from his claim that he wouldn’t allow Muslims to serve in his administration. Cain told TPM he would simply be cautious about appointing a Muslim but does not support an outright ban, which he said during a ThinkProgress interview in March:
“I am not anti-Muslim,” he said. “I am anti-terrorist. And so my statement has been misconstrued several times, I’ve even been called a bigot because I expressed a desire to be cautious if I were to consider a Muslim for my administration. That was the intent of [the answer to ThinkProgress].”
…
“If you’re trying to make me lose my cool, you are almost succeeding,” Cain said, his voice rising. “I never said I would use any special precautions!”
OK, then, TPM followed up: “So a Muslim applies to be in the administration, he gets in like anybody else?” “Yes,” Cain said.
But Herman Cain told Bryan Fischer the exact opposite in April, stating that he wouldn’t appoint any Muslims to his administration. Now, PolitiFact gave him a “pants on fire” rating for denying that he would refuse to appoint Muslim officials.
Cain: I have been upfront, which ruffles some feathers, but remember Bryan, being politically correct is not one of my strong points; I come at it straight from the heart and straight from the way I see it. And the comment that I made the become controversial, and that my staff keeps hoping will die, is that I wouldn’t have Muslims in my administration. And it’s real simple: the Constitution does not have room for sharia law. I want people who are going to believe and enforce the Constitution of the United States of America. And so I don’t have time, as President of the United States, to try and screen people based upon their religious beliefs – I really don’t care what your religious beliefs are, but I do know that most of the people of the Muslim faith, they believe in sharia law. And to introduce that element as part of an administration when we have all of these other issues, I think I have a right to say that I won’t.
