GOP Senate hopeful wants to go beyond Trump’s Muslim ban

A Republican Colorado Senate candidate said this week that he wants to take Donald Trump’s proposal to ban Muslims from entering the United States a step further.

{mosads}Businessman Robert Blaha told a GOP meeting that he wants “to go beyond just Muslims,” according to BuzzFeed. Blaha, who’s already thrown his support behind the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, said that he is focused on security.

“The issue is partially a religious issue, but … the real issue is security,” Blaha said in Fremont County on Tuesday. “The real issue is we do not know who these people are. We don’t know where they’re coming from, we don’t know whether a terrorist state. We do not have the ability as a government right now to vet these people.”

He also called for securing the border.

“Until we can properly vet people and know who they are and know where they’re coming from and know what their belief structures are they’re coming out of, we cannot afford to take that risk,” he continued. “So it’s bigger than just a religious issue, to me. It’s a much bigger issue than just a religious issue. So we must secure the border, and we must not allow people to come into this country when we do not know who they are.”

Blaha is part of a crowded GOP field in the June 28 primary to try and unseat Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.). The seat is one of the few GOP targets this cycle as Republicans seek to hold onto their slim Senate majority.

Democrats blasted Blaha’s remarks for taking Trump’s proposal to the “next level.”

“We already knew Robert Blaha was unabashed in his extreme policy positions, but saying banning Muslims from entering the country isn’t taking it far enough is taking extreme to the next level,” Colorado Democratic Party spokesman Chris Meagher said in a statement. “Instead of focusing on real policy solutions, Blaha is adding to the outlandish, offensive, prejudiced rhetoric that is antithetical to our values as a nation.”

Blaha isn’t the only down-ballot GOP candidate to channel Trump and propose going further with his Muslim ban proposal.

Carlos Beruff, a GOP Senate candidate in Florida, said in late April that he wants to ban anyone from the Middle East, with the exception of Israel, from entering the United States.

“I think our immigration department is broken. And I don’t think it’s safe to allow anybody from the Middle East into this country,” Beruff said, “until they fix it.”

Beruff said later that the ban would include both Christians and Muslims. “Unless you can tell me how you get the system to be able to do that correctly, I think it applies to everybody,” he said.

Beruff is running in a crowded GOP field to replace Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) that includes Reps. David Jolly and Ron DeSantis, Florida Lt. Gov. Carlos López-Cantera and businessman Todd Wilcox.

The winner will face either Reps. Patrick Murphy or Alan Grayson, who are locked in a bitter primary battle for the Democratic nomination.