For months, the Republican establishment has carefully dealt with Donald Trump and his in-your-face, shoot-from-the-lip presidential campaign that has sharply resonated with Americans.
On Tuesday it became a full-scale condemnation as GOP leaders and Trump's GOP presidential competition tore into the billionaire developer over his proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States.
"Freedom of religion is a fundamental constitutional principle. It's a founding principle of this country," House Speaker Paul Ryan said to reporters after emerging from a closed-door meeting with the Republican National Committee.
"This is not conservatism. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for. And more importantly, it's not what this country stands for."
Trump, the runaway GOP presidential front-runner in poll after poll, sparked a furor when he said he favors a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States as a way to help stop terrorist attacks at home.
He likened the idea to President Franklin Roosevelt's initiatives against people of German, Japanese and Italian descent during World War II, telling ABC's "Good Morning America," "We have no choice but to do this. We have people that want to blow up our buildings, our cities. We have figure out what's going on."
But Ryan as well as Trump's competitors for the 2016 GOP presidential nomination — most of who have treated Trump with kid gloves so far — pulled those gloves off on Tuesday and went after him with bared fists.
Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, who has been on the receiving end of some of Trump's most acerbic insults tweeted:
Ohio Gov. John Kasich said in a statement: "This is just more of the outrageous divisiveness that characterizes his every breath and another reason why he is entirely unsuited to lead the United States."
Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina fired off three condemning tweets, saying:
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie told conservative radio host Michael Medved, "This is the kind of thing that people say when they have no experience and don't know what they're talking about. We do not need to endorse that type of activity, nor should we."
Even Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, who has refrained from slamming Trump after some of his most controversial statements, jumped on the bandwagon.
“That is not my policy,” Cruz, the new Republican presidential front-runner in a New Monmouth University Poll of Iowa caucus voters, said in a terse statement.
Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida also ripped into Trump, tweeting:
Former New York Gov. George Pataki, who has long dismissed Trump's candidacy as a joke, also trashed the real estate tycoon on Twitter:
Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina said: "Tump's overreaction is as dangerous as President Obama's under-reaction."
Sen. Rand Paul's campaign said the Kentucky Republican also disagreed with Trump.
"Our focus is on our own solutions," Paul campaign spokesman Sergio Gor said, pointing to Paul's plan to stop issuing visas to students, refugees and tourists from countries with "significant jihadist" activity.
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