Hillary Clinton’s campaign is doing damage control after one of Clinton’s notable supporters endorsed the Japanese interment camps used during World War II.
David A. Bowers, the Democratic mayor of Roanoke, Va., issued a statement Wednesday calling on government and non-government agencies to “delay any further Syrian refugee assistance.”
In his statement, Bowers wrote:
[…] since the recent terrorist bombing of the Russian airline, the attacks in Paris and now with the murderous threats to our nation’s capital, I am convinced that it is presently imprudent to assist in the relocation of Syrian refugees to our part of Virginia.
Thus, today, I’m requesting that all Roanoke Valley government and non-government agencies suspend and delay any further Syrian refugee assistance until these serious hostilities and atrocities end, or at the very least until regarded as under control by U.S. authorities, and normalcy is restored.
In order to make the case that this action is appropriate, Bowers spoke highly of the Japanese internment camps used during World War II that forced over 100,000 people from their homes and into barbed-wire camps:
I’m reminded that President Franklin D. Roosevelt felt compelled to sequester Japanese foreign nationals after the bombing of Pearl Harbor, and it appeals that the threat of harm to America from ISIS now is just as real and serious as that from our enemies then.
As a result of Bowers’ remarks, he has been reportedly kicked off of Clinton’s Virginia Leadership Council. Bowers’ name has also been removed from the list of mayors supporting Clinton.
Clinton campaign spokesperson Josh Schwerin told BuzzFeed News, “The internment of people of Japanese descent is a dark cloud on our nation’s history and to suggest that it is anything but a horrible moment in our past is outrageous.”