President Obama fired off after Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush suggested that there should be a religious test for admitting Syrian refugees into the country.
Speaking at the G20 summit today, President Obama made it clear that ideas like those expressed by Bush are not American and, in fact, are shameful to hold as an individual.
“When I hear folks say that, well, maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims, when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who’s fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted,” he said. “When some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful. That’s not American. That’s not who we are.”
“We don’t have religious tests to our compassion,” President Obama said.
Watch Obama’s statement to at the G20 summit below.
