Donald Trump's comments on Muslims are "irresponsible," but the comparisons to Adolf Hitler are unfair and "idiotic," The Weekly Standard Editor Bill Kristol told
Newsmax TV on Wednesday.
"Trump is a demagogue — and he's been irresponsible about what he said about Muslims, but when he loses the election he will not stage a coup," Kristol told "The Steve Malzberg Show" in an interview. "I don't think he wants to kill whole nationalities, but he says very irresponsible things."
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Kristol said he supports a temporary halt in admitting Syrian refugees to the United States while the vetting process is overhauled, "but the saying that all Muslims should be kept out of the country is a whole different story.
"That is just flat-out discrimination on the basis of religion," he said. "You can give preference, certainly, to religious minorities who are persecuted, like Christians. That's a different story, or Soviet Jews in the old days.
"What he said was irresponsible. He's not a fascist or a Nazi or anything like that."
Perhaps the biggest problem, Kristol told Malzberg, is that mainstream Republican candidates continue to sidestep many of the issues that are key to Trump's campaign: refugees, illegal immigration and terrorism.
"The establishment has been so politically correct and timid — he's right about that that — it's an open room for someone else, and he's sort of gone too far the other way.
"I really hope the Republican candidates — the Cruz's and the Rubio's and the Christie's — understand that Trump is tapping into something serious and something that not only deserves a voice, but it also deserves a responsible and serious voice."
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