Robert Blaha, a Republican primary candidate in Colorado's Senate race, said on Tuesday that Donald Trump's proposed ban on Muslims entering the country doesn't go far enough.
"I want to go beyond just Muslims," Blaha said at a GOP meeting in Fremont County. "And I'll tell you why. The issue is not—the issue is partially a religious issue, but the real issue there is—the real issue is security. The real issue is we do not know who these people are. We don't know where they're coming from, we don't know whether a terrorist state. We do not have the ability as a government right now to vet these people."
Blaha, a businessman who is among the five GOP candidates running in the June 28 primary, pledged when he announced his campaign in January to voluntarily leave office after one term if he did not "reduce illegal immigration by 50 percent, drastically cut the deficit, and help fix this horrific tax system."
In his comments on Tuesday, Blaha, who has endorsed Donald Trump, said the U.S. shouldn't allow people into the country "when we do not know who they are."
"Until we can properly vet people and know who they are and know where they're coming from and know what their belief structures are they're coming out of, we cannot afford to take that risk," he said. "So it's bigger than just a religious issue, to me. It's a much bigger issue than just a religious issue. So we must secure the border, and we must not allow people to come into this country when we do not know who they are."