Two days ago, Donald Trump made news by floating the idea of a commission chaired by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani to study radical Islamic terrorism with the goal of differentiating between refugees seeking asylum in the U.S. and terrorists.
But the White House made it clear to Newsmax on Thursday that it believed a "Giuliani Commission" was unnecessary because it felt the present process for vetting refugees was working well.
"We actually have a very well-established process for considering individuals who want to enter the country through the refugee process," Press Secretary Josh Earnest said in response to our question about whether the administration felt that a commission that would, in Giuliani's words, "distinguish between all the good people who are Muslims and the bad ones, is a good idea."
President Barack Obama's top spokesman added that "people who enter the United States through the refugee program are subject to more scrutiny than anybody else who comes into the country.
"Refugees, regardless of the way that they worship, are processed through a system that carefully vets their background, collects information from those individuals in in-person interviews, collects biometric information, that is then run through a variety of data bases maintained by law enforcement, by our national security agencies, by intelligence agencies.
Earnest added that "that's a well-established process and that's the one President Obama has ensured our national security agencies are adhering to."
When we pressed him to say whether that meant Trump's proposed commission was unnecessary, Earnest told us: "I'll let the presidential candidates make whatever proposals they want."
John Gizzi is chief political columnist and White House correspondent for Newsmax.
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