Matt Whitaker in 2014: Our border is under 'assault on a daily basis'; judges should have 'a biblical view'

Stephen Gruber-Miller | The Des Moines Register

Show Caption Hide Caption U.S. Senate candidate Matt Whitaker full interview Matt Whitaker, running for US Senate, full interview with the Register's editorial board

Acting attorney general Matt Whitaker says, "Iowa shaped my values."

Those values, as Whitaker espoused during his 2014 campaign for U.S. Senate, include sharply limiting the federal government, strict immigration limits and opposition to same sex-marriage and abortion.

Whitaker, appointed acting U.S. attorney general in November, lost that Senate Republican primary to Joni Ernst, who went on to win the race. His views on policy have attracted renewed interest and criticism since his appointment to serve as the nation's top law enforcement officer.

His comments during that race show a willingness to aggressively curtail the power of the federal government, including eliminating the Department of Education and the Internal Revenue Service, and the importance of Whitaker's Christian faith in influencing his politics.

Here's where he stood on some of the issues:

The courts 'are supposed to be the inferior branch'

In an April 2014 debate sponsored by the Family Leader, Whitaker said he believes judges should have a 'biblical view' of the law.

"I'd like to see things like their world view, what informs them," he said at the debate. "Are they people of faith? Do they have a biblical view of justice?"

Whitaker said he has a New Testament view as opposed to one drawn from the Book of Leviticus, in the Old Testament.

"And what I know is as long as they have that world view, that they'll be a good judge. And if they have a secular world view, where this is all we have here on Earth, then I'm going to be very concerned about that judge," he said.

More on Whitaker:

Whitaker also told the conservative Iowa blog Caffeinated Thoughts in a 2014 Q&A that "the courts are supposed to be the inferior branch of our three branches of government."

He said it was unfortunate that so many public policy issues have been left to the courts to decide.

In the interview, Whitaker also questioned a long line of U.S. Supreme Court cases, beginning with Marbury v. Madison, the 1803 case that established the principle of judicial review, or the power to declare laws unconstitutional.

New Deal cases up to the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate also "would be bad," he said.

On immigration: 'What I don't want is amnesty'

"What I don't want is amnesty," Whitaker told the Register's editorial board in 2014.

"I'm the only candidate in this race who has enforced immigration laws," he said at the time. He said the nation has plenty of immigration laws already, but he wants to secure the border, see "visas reconciled to meet the needs of industry" and implement "merit-based immigration."

Whitaker told Caffeinated Thoughts his time as a U.S. attorney showed him the border "is under assault on a daily basis from people trying to bring illegal people and illegal drugs into our country."

He advocated for securing the border first and then looking for solutions. That could include ending so-called "chain migration" or family migration or increasing skilled worker visas.

He supported a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman

One year before the U.S. Supreme Court legalized same-sex marriage nationwide, Whitaker was advocating for a constitutional amendment to define marriage as exclusively between one man and one woman.

"I believe marriage is between a man and a woman. Right now I see that it is a state issue because it's not covered in the Constitution," he told the Register's editorial board in 2014.

Whitaker spoke with Caffeinated Thoughts about issues he considers "non-negotiable."

"I don’t believe I’d negotiate on marriage, although I believe that’s primarily a state issue," he said.

More:

'100 percent pro-life'

"I'm 100 percent pro-life," he told the Register's editorial board. "The one exception is the life of the mother. ... I just can't play doctor or God and put my decision into a health care professional's decision as to what life is more valuable."

"You know I believe that life begins at conception through natural death," he told Caffeinated Thoughts. "That’s informed in large part by my three children that I have. I listened to each of their heartbeats at the doctor’s office. So that’s where I begin and end the analysis."

He opposed raising taxes and called for the IRS' abolition

Whitaker called the tax agency "massive and clunky" in a 2014 Iowa Public Television debate.

"It's our worst nightmare, and it's time for it to go," he said.

In his interview with the Register's editorial board, he said he'd like to close corporate tax loopholes.

"Our tax code is five times the number of words of the Bible, and none of the good news," he said. He'd like to see a national sales tax and repeal the 16th Amendment.

"I would like to see our tax burden brought down. I don't want to be irresponsible, though; I wouldn't want to borrow more money to give a tax cut," he said.

He argued for cutting government spending and passing a balanced budget amendment to the U.S. Constitution.

On Obamacare, 'we need to do everything we can to repeal it'

In 2014, Whitaker favored repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act, which is "a $1.2 trillion tax on our nation's small businesses," he said in his interview with the Register's editorial board.

"I'd be happy to do it piecemeal ... and eventually get rid of the whole thing," he said. He wouldn't mind keeping certain parts, such as allowing children to stay on a parent's insurance until age 26. Health care reform should focus on competition, price transparency and putting patients in charge of their health care dollars, he told the editorial board.

"One of the things we will need to address is high-risk folks and the uninsured," he said. "I would like to see it on a state-by-state issue."

"We need to do everything we can to repeal it, defund it, delay it — we need to do whatever it takes. It’s having an incredibly negative impact on our economy," he told Caffeinated Thoughts.

Former Iowa newspaper editor files federal complaint From 2014: Bob Eschliman, a former Newton newspaper editor, says he was fired for expressing his religious views on gays. Matt Whitaker, named acting U.S. Attorney General in November 2018, helped represent Eschliman.

Defends 'the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo' writer

During the campaign, he and other candidates were asked about a controversial Arizona proposal that would have allowed people to cite their religious beliefs as a defense against claims of discrimination. He said he supported preserving religious liberty but didn't believe a law like Arizona's, which won legislative approval but got a gubernatorial veto, was needed at the federal level.

"We have the First Amendment to our Constitution, which guarantees the right to practice the religion we choose," he said.

After his Senate campaign ended, Whitaker helped represent former Newton Daily News editor Bob Eschliman, who argued he was terminated because of his religious beliefs after he wrote a blog post accusing "the LGBTQXYZ crowd and the Gaystapo" of trying "to make their sinful nature right with God."

"No one should be fired for simply expressing his religious beliefs," Whitaker said at the time. "In America, it is against the law to fire an employee for expressing a religious belief in public. This kind of religious intolerance by an employer has no place in today's welcoming workforce."