Key Republican dodges on where GOP stands on Muslim ban
Sen. John Barrasso, the chairman of this year's Republican Platform Committee, dodged a question Sunday about where the GOP stands on Donald Trump's proposed Muslim ban.
In an interview on ABC's "This Week," the Wyoming Republican was asked where the party now stands on the presumptive GOP nominee's Muslim ban plan.
"The platform is about the core values of our party. It's who we are, it's what we stand for, and I met with Donald Trump about it and he understands that the platform is very important to the Republican Party," Barrasso said. "It's going to be a conservative platform that's going to be positive, optimistic, looking to the future, focused on things like jobs, the economy, and national security. And what he was focused on with that ban is national security."
Pushed further to answer the question directly, Barrasso said that the 112-member platform committee will meet in Cleveland in July for a full week before the party's convention and will work it out then.
"We've asked Donald Trump to allow the process to play out. He has agreed to do that. And I've asked him personally to embrace the platform and I believe he will. National security will be a big part of it," he said.
Barrasso did not comment further on the Muslim entry ban, an idea Trump first floated last December a few days after the San Bernardino terrorist attack. At the time, he called for a "total and complete shutdown" of all Muslims entering the U.S.
Trump has not talked much about the GOP platform, although in April, he told NBC that he would support a change to the Republican platform on abortion that would include exceptions for rape, incest and the life of the mother.