Dying ex-GOP senator spent his last days apologizing to Muslims for Donald Trump
Former Republican Sen. Bob Bennett, who died earlier this month, spent his last days apologizing to Muslims for Donald Trump.
In April, Bennett, who represented Utah, suffered a stroke and he revealed that he had also been battling pancreatic cancer for the last year. The stroke paralyzed the left side of his body and the cancer had spread to his stomach and near his liver.
"Are there any Muslims in the hospital?" he asked his wife Joyce and son Jim, both of whom relayed this story to The Daily Beast's Tim Mak. "I'd love to go up to every single one of them to thank them for being in this country, and apologize to them on behalf of the Republican Party for Donald Trump."
While they wound up not looking around George Washington University hospital to fulfill his request, the report said, Bennett did spend the last few months of his life reaching out to Muslims.
Bennett, for example, approached a woman wearing a hijab in the airport when he and his family traveled from Washington, D.C. to Utah for Christmas, the report said.
"He would go to people with the hijab [on] and tell them he was glad they were in America, and they were welcome here," his wife told The Daily Beast. "He wanted to apologize on behalf of the Republican Party."
"He was astonished and aghast that Donald Trump had the staying power that he had... He had absolutely no respect for Donald Trump, and I think got angry and frustrated when it became clear that the party wasn't going to steer clear of Trumpism," his son said.
In an interview with the Deseret News, the report noted, Bennett described Muslims as "wonderful."
"There's a lot of Muslims here in this area. I'm glad they're here," he said.
Bennett died May 4 at 82 years old. He served in Congress from 1993 to 2011, and was a victim of the 2010 Tea Party wave that elected Sen. Mike Lee as his successor. After he left Capitol Hill, he ran a consulting firm and worked as a lobbyist in Washington.
Trump, now the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, proposed last December after the San Bernardino terrorist attack to block all Muslims from entering the U.S.
