New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo Monday slammed Donald Trump as a "recruitment poster" for ISIS, saying his comments about barring Muslims from coming into the United States are "fanning the flames of hate."
"Forget the politics," said Cuomo, pointing out to
CNN's "New Day" host Alisyn Camerota that he is a Democrat and will not be voting in the Republican primary for any of the candidates.
"I'm sure Mr. Trump has very smart people who are advising him and they've come to the conclusion that there are enough extremists in the Republican Party that this Muslim ban is good politics for him, but I believe it's terrible policy."
And, the governor continued, he believes Trump's stance is "actually fomenting the growth of ISIL."
"No Muslims in the United States, 1 billion Muslims were alienated with one sentence," said Cuomo, whose younger brother, Chris Cuomo is a co-anchor on "New Day" and who has argued more than once on his show with the front-runner.
"At this point, we don't need more Muslim enemies," the governor continued. "We need more Muslim allies, and saying that this country doesn't trust or doesn't like all Muslims and damns a religion, plays right into their hand."
There is likely little political love lost between Trump and the New York governor.
Last year, Trump was threatening to launch a challenge against Cuomo for the governor's seat, telling the
New York Daily News after a meeting with Republicans in his office that he'd seek the state's top spot if the GOP would give him its full support and rule out having primary elections.
At that time, Trump, who did not end up mounting a
campaign for governor, said he thought Cuomo could be defeated because of his policies on taxes and gun control.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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