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Major Trump Supporter Calls for Cold War-Era ‘Un-American Activities' Committee  

  • Donald Trump delivers a campaign speech about national security in New Hampshire, U.S. June 13, 2016.

    Donald Trump delivers a campaign speech about national security in New Hampshire, U.S. June 13, 2016. | Photo: Reuters

Published 14 June 2016
Opinion

The committee was infamously used against the so-called communist threat during the Cold War.

Former house speaker and Donald Trump supporter Newt Gingrich called for the creation of a new House Un-American Activities Committee Monday as a method of combating U.S. citizens who plan to commit terrorist attacks in the country.

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“We originally created the House Un-American Activities Committee to go after Nazis. We passed several laws in 1938 and 1939 to go after Nazis and we made it illegal to help the Nazis. We're going to presently have to go take the similar steps here,” he was quoted as saying by CNN.

The House Un-American Activities Committee was originally founded in 1938 to investigate alleged subversion by individuals and groups suspected of having Nazi and communist ties. Often compared to the activities of Joseph McCarthy, this included activists, artists and high-profile Hollywood stars accused of having socialist, communist and left-wing sympathies.

Evoking the "Red Scare" and the McCarthyism of the Cold War, Gingrich went on to say the U.S. must “ultimately declare a war on Islamic supremacists and we're going to say, if you pledge allegiance to ISIS, you are a traitor and you have lost your citizenship."

Pointing out that both the San Bernardino and Orlando terror attacks were committed by U.S. citizens, the prominent Trump supporter vowed the U.S. must take "much tougher positions" going forward.

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In the wake of the Orlando terror attack, which resulted in the death of 49 innocent people, Trump has once again suggested Muslim communities should be held to account for the actions of individuals.

"They know that (the Orlando killer) was bad. They knew the people in San Bernardino were bad. But you know what, they didn't turn them in, and we had death and destruction."

The Republican front-runner has accused both President Obama and Trump's rival for the presidency, Hillary Clinton, of sympathizing with the shooter, while he has also called for greater levels of intervention in the Middle East and North Africa, saying "we have to really increase the bombing" of Islamic State group.

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