Representative Mike Honda told The New Republic Thursday that President-elect Donald Trump must denounce Wednesday remarks from Carl Higbie, a spokesman for the pro-Trump Great America PAC, that the World War II–era internment of Japanese Americans created legal “precedent” for a government registry of Muslim immigrants.



“If Trump does not say something about this—does not disavow it—he will be failing in political leadership,” said Honda, a Democrat from California. “He will be failing in his own promise to make America great.”

In a Thursday morning interview with The New York Times, Higbie called interment camps “horrific” and said he opposed internment, but stood by his comments about legal precent.

“It’s really disturbing,” Honda said of Higbie’s original statement. “All it does is engender fear and anxiety in our communities.”

The congressman warned that this kind of rhetoric could lead the United States to repeat the mistakes of history, and said “Congress should go on record to say this kind of behavior will not be tolerated and we’ll fight it.”