On Wednesday's New Day on CNN, during a segment with guest Chad Sweet of the Ted Cruz campaign, co-host Alisyn Camerota seemed to worry that Cruz's plans for more police engagement with Muslim communities in the U.S. would make Muslims "feel more ostracized" as she alluded to fellow GOP candidate John Kasich's criticism from the previous night's CNN candidates forum.
Sweet recalled his time working for the Office of Homeland Security as he argued for a return to activities that involve working cooperatively with Muslims and additionally trying to offer protection to Muslims for their own benefit as well.
At about 7:12 a.m. ET, Camerota brought up the issue: "Let's talk about some of the substance of what was said at the town hall last night. One point of distinction was how the candidates believe Muslim communities should be treated. Let's listen to what they said last night."
Then came soundbites from all three remaining GOP presidential candidates, including a clip of Kasich sounding skeptical of new police activities:
TED CRUZ, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Listen, if you want to stop radical Islamic terrorism, the answer isn't to go hang out in random neighborhoods. It is, instead. to focus on communities where radicalization is a risk.
DONALD TRUMP, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think we have to look very seriously at the mosques. Lots of things have been happening in the mosques. That's been proven.
JOHN KASICH, GOP PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're not going to police Muslim neighborhoods. We can't afford polarization of people who are in the civilized world.
Picking up on Kasich, the CNN host posed: "Chad, what about what Kasich was saying there, that in order to stop radicalization, you'll need the help of Muslim communities, not for them to feel more ostracized?"
Sweet cited his past experience in the field as he began:
Well, let me be clear, what Senator Cruz is calling for -- patrolling and securing Muslim neighborhoods -- is actually not anti-Muslim, it's pro-Muslim. And I can say this because I actually used to be the chief of staff to the Department of Homeland Security and was formerly in the CIA. I actually worked on and set up what's called the Incident Response Team where the Office of Civil Liberties and the FBI, we work together. Anytime there was an incident around the world or in the U.S., we would call upon and activate communication with the Muslim communities.
He then argued that such interaction could help protect Muslims from harassment:
And I can tell you personally, having done that, that we would always start off with asking them about how are they being secured, are they actually having any backlash against their population, and offering support for them. And, at the same time, we would then also ask for their assistance in countering violent extremism. And over and over again, they were partners in that effort because they know their communities are the most at risk. So what I'm telling you is from my own personal experience, what Senator Cruz is calling for is actually going to help with the Muslim community.
Sweet brought up lessons that can be learned from Europe's failures as he concluded:
He's never going to bow down to political correctness and engage in what the Europeans have been doing, which is having no-go zones or areas where effectively the law enforcement is not actively and visibly engaged and empowered. And that's what we saw just last week in Brussels where unfortunately, and the community of Molenbeek, you actually had one of the terrorists who committed the events in Paris come back to Brussels, hide out in the very city where the headquarters of NATO and the European Union is, that's not what we're going to have in our own country. We're going to go ahead and be proactive. And the Senator, what he's calling for, is actually pro-Muslim, not anti-Muslim.
