InsideSources

Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump’s recent rhetoric about American Muslims “reeks of Islamophobia and fascism,” a spokesman for the nation’s largest Muslim civil rights and advocacy group told InsideSources Friday.

That comment from Robert McCaw, government affairs manager for the Council on American-Islamic Relations, came following Trump’s Thursday statement to NBC News that he “would certainly implement” a government database to register and track Muslims in the United States:

“I would certainly implement that. Absolutely,” Trump said in Newton, Iowa, in between campaign town halls.

“There should be a lot of systems, beyond databases,” he added. “We should have a lot of systems.” Asked whether Muslims would be legally obligated to sign into the database, Trump responded, “They have to be — they have to be.”

Trump’s remarks, made less than a week after last Friday’s deadly ISIS terrorist attack in Paris, were denounced Friday by Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton and other GOP contenders, including former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and Ohio Gov. John Kasich.

“This is shocking rhetoric,” Clinton wrote on Twitter.

Bush told CNBC Trump’s comments were “just wrong.”

As a growing number of national publications have pointed out, the notion of a national database to register and track members of a specific religion is reminiscent of Nazi Germany. In an email to InsideSources, McCaw wrote that he agreed with news outlets calling Trump’s ideas fascistic.

“Trump’s refusal to reject special identification and databases for Americans Muslims for the purpose of warrantless surveillance reeks of Islamophobia and fascism,” he wrote.

RELATED: After Paris, Rubio Wants to Put NSA Reform on Hold

The Council on American-Islamic Relations is also condemning another popular candidate in the Republican presidential field, Ben Carson, for comparing Syrian refugees to “rabid dogs.”

“By mainstreaming Islamophobic and unconstitutional policies, Donald Trump and Ben Carson are contributing to an already toxic environment that may be difficult to correct once their political ambitions have been satisfied,” McCaw said in a Thursday statement. “Such extremist rhetoric is unbecoming of anyone who seeks our nation’s highest office and must be strongly repudiated by leaders from across the political spectrum.”

In an interview with InsideSources earlier this week, McCaw said the Republican Party’s relationship with American Muslims has been transformed since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001. George W. Bush received roughly 70 percent of the Muslim vote in the 2000 presidential election, and after 9/11 he made clear that the United States was not at war with Islam.

Speaking directly to Muslims in his speech to Congress following the attack, Bush said:

We respect your faith. It’s practiced freely by many millions of Americans, and by millions more in countries that America counts as friends. Its teachings are good and peaceful, and those who commit evil in the name of Allah blaspheme the name of Allah. The terrorists are traitors to their own faith, trying, in effect, to hijack Islam itself. The enemy of America is not our many Muslim friends; it is not our many Arab friends. Our enemy is a radical network of terrorists, and every government that supports them.

But McCaw said “there’s been a devolution in how Republicans talk about American Muslims,” with Trump and Carson representing the tip of the iceberg.

RELATED: Hillary: Obsessing Over the Term ‘Radical Islam’ Helps Terrorists

Asked if there were any current GOP presidential candidates who generally spoke well of Muslims, McCaw named South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham and former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina. However, he saved his most fulsome praise for another Republican contender.

“The strongest presidential candidate in the Republican Party — the GOP standard-bearer in speaking out against anti-Muslim bigotry — is [New Jersey] Gov. Chris Christie,” McCaw said. “Christie has no apparent history of Islamophobia, and he’s actually done a lot for the rights of Muslims.”

McCaw has noted that Christie criticized Trump for failing to correct a man who said America has a “Muslim problem” and that President Barack Obama is Muslim non-citizen of the United States. In addition, the governor defended his own nomination of a Muslim judge to the New Jersey Superior Court.

In the face of allegations that he was promoting Sharia law with the nomination, Christie said, “This Sharia law business is just crap. It’s just crazy, and I’m tired of dealing with the crazies.”

The latest national polling shows Christie trailing in the Republican field, registering in the single digits. In contrast, an NBC News survey released Friday shows Trump “has the frontrunner spot to himself,” polling a full 10 points ahead of any other candidate.

UPDATE — 2:25 p.m.: Trump sent the following tweet Friday afternoon: 

I didn't suggest a database-a reporter did. We must defeat Islamic terrorism & have surveillance, including a watch list, to protect America

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) November 20, 2015

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Terrorism has been front and center in the last three American presidential elections, and this weekend’s bloodbath in Paris served notice that 2016 will be no exception. In the hours since Friday’s attacks that left more than 120 dead, national security hawks like Republican presidential contender Sen. Lindsey Graham have stepped to the fore, warning the United States is the ultimate target of the Islamic State.

“There is a 9/11 coming, and it is coming from Syria if we don’t disrupt their operations inside of Syria,” the South Carolina Republican said Sunday on CNN. Graham called for an additional 10,000 American troops in the Middle East as part of a multi-national army charged with retaking northern Syria and western Iraq from the terror group known as ISIS or ISIL. “Without American boots on the ground in Syria and Iraq, we’re going to get hit here at home. And if you don’t understand that, you’re not ready to be commander in chief.”

Graham has gotten nowhere in the crowded GOP presidential field by campaigning against President Barack Obama’s handling of ISIS and the Middle East, but the unprecedented, coordinated attack that shook the French capital on Friday had leaders around the world sounding more like the hawkish South Carolina lawmaker.

French President Francois Hollande — who vowed his country’s retribution against ISIS would be “pitiless” — followed up Sunday with “massive” air strikes against Islamic State positions in Syria. And as news broke that one of the terrorists in Paris had gained entry to the European Union by posing as a Syrian refugee, Poland announced it would no longer accept migrants without security guarantees. At the Vatican on Saturday, Pope Francis warned of a “piecemeal” third world war.

At a rally the same day in Texas, Donald Trump who has surged to the top of the Republican field by framing illegal immigration as an existential economic and security threat to the U.S., drew cheers when he called the administration’s plans to welcome thousands of Syrian war refugees to the country “insane.”

Trump’s Twitter ruminations on whether strict Parisian gun-control laws added to the death toll drew a sharp rebuke from the French ambassador to the U.S., who called the billionaire a “vulture.” But conservative commentator Ann Coulter, holding a finger to the prevailing political winds, tweeted Friday to 706,000 followers that “Donald Trump was elected president tonight.”

Other GOP presidential hopefuls, including two of Graham’s Senate colleagues, Ted Cruz of Texas and Marco Rubio of Florida were quick to ramp up their rhetoric on ISIS, though each stopped short of Graham’s call for a large-scale, troops-on-the-ground redeployment in Iraq.

On Facebook, Rubio called the escalating conflict between the West and “radical Islam” a “clash of civilizations — and either they win or we win.” On ABC’s ‘This Week,” the Florida senator said “there will have to be significant American engagement.” Asked about ground troops, he said, “I think it’s premature to say the exact number.”

Cruz, campaigning Saturday in South Carolina, called for a dramatic expansion in the existing bombing campaign against ISIS — even at the risk of increased deaths of Syrian civilians — and criticized President Obama as unwilling to lead a global fight against terror.

“We need a president that makes abundantly clear to any militant across the face of the earth, if you go and join ISIS, if you wage jihad against the United States of America, then you are signing your death warrant,” Cruz said.

“There is a consequence to having an administration, to President Obama, to Hillary Clinton being unwilling to call radical Islamic terrorism by its name,” he added.

But even Clinton struck a decidedly more martial tone during Saturday night’s Democratic Party presidential debate in Des Moines, telling CBS News moderator John Dickerson that ISIS cannot be “contained, it must be defeated” — an indication the former secretary of State isn’t exactly on the same page with her old boss in the White House when it comes to the war on terror.

Obama has been blasted after his use of “contained” to describe ISIS in a Nov. 12 interview — one day before the Paris attacks. White House officials complain the remark has been taken out of context, but with Republicans already using the comment to question, again, the administration’s judgement on national security issues, Clinton clearly felt a need to distance herself from the president.

While her Democratic rivals on the debate stage seemed unwilling Saturday to tackle the ramifications on U.S. security of the Paris attack (Bernie Sanders offered a brief, two-sentence summation in his opening statement before pivoting back to economic issues), the former secretary of State spoke at length, challenging Gulf allies to stand up to jihadists and defending regime change in Libya.

The tough talked seemed to work, at least with the viewers watching the debate: A Public Policy Polling survey showed a whopping 67 percent of those polled thought Clinton won. A similar poll by CBS News had Clinton winning, 51 percent to Sanders’ 28 percent.

When Donald Trump descended the escalator into the lobby of his Manhattan skyscraper and launched his presidential campaign this past June, the soundtrack to the spectacle was unusual, especially for a Republican. Neil Young’s “Rockin’ in the Free World,” a 1989 protest song criticizing President George H.W. Bush, blared from the speakers — and it generated the first of countless controversies in the businessman’s bid for the White House.

Young, an outspoken liberal and supporter of Democratic presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders, quickly objected to Trump using the track without permission. The real estate mogul agreed not to play it again, but not without calling Young a “total hypocrite” for raising the objection after asking Trump for money to fund an online music service.

Of course, Trump embracing “Free World” was a bit incongruous in and of itself. As an opponent of the 2003 Iraq invasion, he might have sympathized with its anti-war message — and he certainly has no great fondness for the Bush family — but it’s not like he identifies with the song’s critique of consumerism. Trump’s the embodiment of capitalist excess, a man who literally erects monuments to himself around the world. He’s not joining Young in lamenting “department stores and toilet paper.”

Obviously none of this made a difference for the mogul. (The flap over his song choice was easily overshadowed when he declared immigrants coming across the Mexican border to be “rapists” bringing drugs and crime.)

Still, as Neil Young turns 70 today, it’s worth making one more note about “Free World”: the track has remained remarkably relevant to American politics since the  late 1980s, and there’s every indication it’ll continue popping up in the future.

‘A thousand points of light — for the homeless man’

As Rolling Stone reported, Young’s song initially gave voice to liberal discontent with George H.W. Bush’s election following two terms of Ronald Reagan, even as the track also “became a rallying cry in post-Reagan America for ‘American values’ and the fall of communism”:

[Bush] optimistically referred to America’s “Thousand Points of Light” and during the Republican National Convention he talked about a “kinder, gentler nation.” Young flipped those hopeful words into the brilliantly sarcastic lines, “We’ve got a thousand points of light/for the homeless man/We’ve got a kinder, gentler/machine gun hand.”

The song also drew an explicitly partisan contrast between Bush and Jesse Jackson, who ran in the 1988 Democratic presidential primary. Referencing Jackson’s campaign slogan in that race, Young crooned, “Got a man of the people/says keep hope alive.” His rejoinder to this line was telling in its fatalism: “Got fuel to burn/Got roads to drive.”

Fahrenheit 9/11

In 2004, Michael Moore breathed new life into “Free World” by playing it over the ending credits of Fahrenheit 9/11, the liberal filmmaker’s cinematic case against President George W. Bush. The film was a major political football, condemned at the Republican National Convention and celebrated by the anti-war movement rallying behind Democratic White House hopeful John Kerry. Young released a special edition single of his song for the movie, and Moore subsequently directed a new topical music video for the track:

Following Kerry’s loss, Young’s anti-Bush activism intensified. His 2006 album, Living With War, featured the song “Let’s Impeach the President.” Another track, “Lookin’ for a Leader” included the line, “Yeah, maybe it’s Obama,” and foreshadowed the 2008 Democratic presidential primary fight between the then-Illinois senator and then-New York Sen. Hillary Clinton: “Someone walks among us / And I hope he hears the call / And maybe it’s a woman / Or a black man after all.”

Backing Bernie

The leader Young is looking for in 2016 may be the only person who actually benefited from the Trump episode back in June: Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. Following an event that month at the University of Denver, the senator’s campaign issued a press release celebrating how “Free World” had played “as Sanders was introduced to the standing-room-only crowd that spilled into an atrium and a nearby lacrosse field.” Unlike Trump, he has the appropriate liberal record to match the song’s lyrics. And having secured Young’s blessing to use the track, he’s set to keep on rockin.’

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During Tuesday night’s Republican debate, Donald Trump and the other GOP presidential contenders mostly avoided Ben Carson’s fracas last week with the campaign press. But by Wednesday evening, Trump was again needling his rival front-runner — and even defending the intense press scrutiny of the former neurosurgeon’s biography.

In an interview with conservative radio host Mark Levin, Trump was challenged over his repeated citations of reporting from Politico and other news organizations that questioned whether Carson inflated or manufactured elements of his life story.

After the Carson campaign contested elements of the original story, Politico changed the headline and affixed an editor’s note to the piece stating the news organization “stands by its reporting.” Still the piece has been harshly criticized on the right.

Trump, who has had his own repeated run-ins with the press, defended Politico.

“They’re really using stuff that he said, though, you know, in all fairness to … Politico,” Trump said, referring to reporting that has focused on Carson’s 1990 autobiography, “Gifted Hands,” and on statements Carson has made in public forums over the course of a long medical career.

“Ben was talking about, I guess he wrote a book — probably before he thought he was going to run for office, to be honest with you,” Trump said. “He talked about … wanting to hit his mother over the head with a hammer. You know, I never had those thoughts, in all fairness. And neither did you. And, you know, other things. Hitting a friend, his best friend in the face with a padlock. That’s pretty bad.”

Asked if he thought Carson was “mentally off,” Trump said, “I hope not. I don’t know.”

Trump said he gets along with most of the GOP field, including Carson.

“First of all, I like him. You know I was with him last night. I’m standing next to him last night. I’m friendly with all of these guys,” Trump said. “There’s a couple of them I don’t like very much to be honest with you.”

Carson accused the press of lying after Politico and other news organizations questioned the 64-year-old retired neurosurgeon’s repeated use of the word “scholarship” to describe overtures from military officials who encouraged him, as a promising young Detroit high school student, to consider attending the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.

Carson also pushed back against CNN and the Wall Street Journal, which ran additional stories challenging details in the candidate’s 1990 autobiography. 

With about 25 percent each, Carson and Trump are running neck and neck in the latest Real Clear Politics composite of national polls in the GOP presidential race.

Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina became one of the most viable 2016 presidential candidates in the minds of many Republicans after an undisputed win during last week’s second-tier debate on Fox News — a performance that’s made her the latest target of GOP polling frontrunner Donald Trump.

Fiorina wasted no time hitting back on “Fox News Sunday” in her response to a question from Chris Wallace about conservative political blog Red State’s decision to withdraw Donald Trump’s invitation from an annual gathering on Saturday — a reaction to comments Trump made about Fox News’ Megyn Kelly following Thursday night’s debate.

“Presidential campaigns are about watching someone under pressure and over time,” Fiorina told Wallace. “And so in the debate that we were just talking about, you asked some tough questions too. You talked to Donald Trump about his record of bankruptcy. But I didn’t notice Donald Trump insulting you for 24 hours. There’s no excuse for this.”

“I don’t think you get things done by insulting everyone,” Fiorina continued. “I have a track record of getting things done.”

Trump claimed Kelly targeted him unfairly during Thursday night’s debate with questions about his history of offensive comments toward women.

“You could see there was blood coming out of her eyes,” Trump told CNN’s Don Lemon Friday. “Blood coming out of her –wherever.”

“Mr. Trump: There. Is. No. Excuse,” Fiorina tweeted Saturday.

Red State’s Erick Erickson said he didn’t “want my daughter in the room with Donald Trump” on Saturday night, and during a Sunday interview on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Fiorina said “women understood” Trump was referring to menstruation when he made the comment.

“[A]s I made my way up in the … male-dominated business world, I have had lots of men imply that I was unfit for decision making because maybe I was having my period,” Fiorina said.

“When I started this campaign, I was asked on a national television show whether a woman’s hormones prevented her from serving in the Oval Office,” Fiorina continued. “My response was, can we think of a single instance in which a man’s hormones might have clouded his judgment?”

RELATED: Fiorina Upsets 2016 Denver Straw Poll, Tops Cruz, Paul, Walker, Bush

“I think women of all kinds are really sort of horrified by this,” Fiorina told host John Dickerson on CBS’ “Face the Nation” Sunday. “Mr. Trump got asked tough questions by a lot of people on Thursday night, but he chose to attack Megyn Kelly.”

“I think you cannot have a president who is thin-skinned,” the HP CEO added.

Trump shot back via social media Sunday.

“I just realized that if you listen to Carly Fiorina for more than ten minutes straight, you develop a massive headache,” Trump tweeted in response. “She has zero chance!”

Fiorina was one of seven candidates including Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore excluded from Fox’s first prime time GOP debate Thursday night.

RELATED: Here’s What You Won’t Hear at Thursday’s Debate — Because These Candidates Won’t Be Allowed on Stage

Instead, Fiorina walked away as the champion of a 5 p.m. happy hour debate on the network, according to virtually every major news outlet and Google.

“I didn’t get a phone call from Bill Clinton before I jumped in the race. Did any of you get a phone call from Bill Clinton? I didn’t,” Fiorina said while unleashing one of many swipes at Trump during the debate.

The Washington Post recently reported Trump sought advice from Clinton before launching his White House bid.

“Maybe it’s because I haven’t given money to the foundation or donated to his wife’s Senate campaign,” Fiorina continued.

The former HP chief’s recent upswing has also invited a new round of criticism regarding her own past, including her firing from the top spot of one of Silicon Valley’s biggest PC manufacturers after a merger with Compaq that ended in layoffs for 30,000 employees.

“I was fired in a boardroom brawl. And you know why?” Fiorina told Jake Tapper on “State of the Union” Sunday. “Because I challenged the status quo. It is what leaders must do. And when you challenge the status quo, when you lead, you make enemies. It’s why so few people lead.”

Fiorina led the company from 1999 to 2005 — a time period she previously described as “the worst technology recession in 25 years.”

The former HP CEO added her firing put her in good company, including that of Oprah Winfrey, Steve Jobs, Walt Disney and Michael Bloomberg.

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Fox News announced late Tuesday the roster for the first of six Republican presidential primary debates set to narrow the crowded 17-candidate lineup between now and 2016, with polling heavy hitters Donald Trump, Jeb Bush, Scott Walker and others taking the first ten spots on stage Thursday night.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul, Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson round out the rest of Thursday’s roll call.

But that doesn’t mean they’re the only candidates worth hearing from, especially when taking into account the slim margin of error that separates the majority of candidates — most of whom reside in the single digits — in polls used to finalize the lineup.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, former Texas Gov. Rick Perry, South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham, former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina, former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum, former New York Gov. George Pataki and former Virginia Gov. Jim Gilmore didn’t make the cut, and will instead were invited to a pre-debate forum Thursday, where they’ll try to cover lost ground by expanding on issues separating them from the frontrunners.

Fiorina in particular has used her outlier status to position herself as the most viable and only female Republican contender capable of taking on Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton.

“Here’s the thing, in order to beat Hillary Clinton, or whoever their nominee turns out to be, we have to have a nominee on our side who is going to throw every punch because this is a fight,” Fiorina said during a forum with 13 other Republican candidates Monday. “It’s a fight for the future of this nation, it’s a fight for the character of this nation and, unfortunately we know that sometimes the right questions don’t get asked in a presidential debate.”

Fiorina, who has also painted herself as the most tech-savvy candidate in the 2016 GOP field, followed up her criticism of Clinton’s tenure at the State Department, particularly in regard to the 2012 attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, on MSNBC’s Morning Joe Wednesday.

“Technology is a great tool that can be used to re-engage citizens in the process of the government,” Fiorina said. “It’s also a weapon that is being used against us, as we know, from all the data breaches from the Chinese. And Hillary Clinton, of course, doesn’t understand that technology well enough to know that her server has most assuredly been hacked because Secret Service Agents can’t protect it from being hacked.”

Fiorina isn’t the only underdog to set her sights on Democrats instead of fellow Republicans. Graham took time Monday to highlight his long tenure in Congress as evidence the South Carolina senator knows how to fight the leading Democratic political dynasty.

“As to the Clintons, I’ve been dealing with this crowd for 20 years. I’m fluent in Clinton-speak. You want me to translate that? When Bill says, ‘I didn’t have sex with that woman,’ he did,” Graham said in reference to former President’s Clinton’s affair with ex-White House intern Monica Lewinsky.

“When she says, ‘I’ll tell you about building the pipeline when I get to be president,’ it means she won’t,” Graham said of Hillary Clinton. “And when she tells us, ‘Trust me, you’ve got all the emails that you need,’ we haven’t even scratched the surface. So I understand this crowd, and I can beat them. And if we can’t beat them it doesn’t matter.”

Perry meanwhile has taken up a cause similar to some financially-focused Democratic wonks like Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren, using a speech in New York last week as an opportunity to lay out his ideas for Wall Street reforms aimed at averting another financial crisis.

“If we want to truly end ‘too big to fail,’ we need to restore market forces to banking, where failure is not rewarded or bailed out,” Perry said at the Yale Club in Manhattan last week, adding Americans “were screwed” in the wake of the housing crisis and left feeling “that the game is rigged.”

Perry’s ideas include separating banks’ commercial lending and investment sectors and requiring them to hold more capital against leverages, two factors widely regarded among economists as significant drivers of the crisis, and major tenants of Warren and Sen. John McCain’s proposal to re-institute Glass-Steagall — the legislation implemented after the Great Depression and repealed in 1990s that imposed separation between investment securities and commercial lending.

Jindal became the first Republican in field to take significant action against Planned Parenthood this week over videos alleging the organization is illegally profiting from the sale of fetal tissue. The Louisiana governor cut off Medicaid funding to the women’s health organization Monday, the same day Republicans in Congress tried unsuccessfully to advance a bill doing the same.

“Planned Parenthood does not represent the values of the people of Louisiana and shows a fundamental disrespect for human life,” Jindal said in a statement. “It has become clear that this is not an organization that is worthy of receiving public assistance from the state.”

Jindal also showed up for Monday’s forum, where he called on fellow candidates to unite against Democrats instead of dismantling one another.

“I’m so tired of this president and the left trying to divide us,” Jindal said. “We’re all Americans. We’re not hyphenated Americans.”

The Santorum camp responded to Tuesday’s lineup announcement with an attack on Fox and the Republican National Committee, both of whom “should not be picking winners and losers,” according to the campaign.

“That’s the job of the voters,” Santorum’s campaign communications manager Matt Beynon said in a statement. “The idea that they have left out the runner-up for the 2012 nomination, the former four-term governor of Texas, the governor of Louisiana, the first female Fortune 50 CEO, and the three-term Senator from South Carolina due to polling seven months before a single vote is cast is preposterous.”

Thursday’s 9 p.m. ET debate will be preceded by a 5 p.m. forum featuring the remaining candidates.

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