Future White House Chief of Staff Reince Priebus struggled on Sunday to defend Donald Trump's campaign promise to create a registry of Muslims.
During the campaign, Trump insisted to NBC News that his administration would go to mosques to "sign these people up" for a database. Trump later said that he never promised to create a registry of Muslims.
On Sunday, NBC host Chuck Todd pointed out that Gen. Michael Flynn, Trump's proposed national security adviser, has also promoted fear of Muslims.
"Can you equivocally rule out a registry for Muslims?" Todd asked Priebus.
"Look, I'm not going to rule out anything," Priebus stuttered. "But we're not going to have a registry based on a religion. But I think what we're trying to do is say that there are some people -- certainly not all people, Chuck -- there are some people that are radicalized. And there are some people that have to be prevented from coming into this country."
"Doesn't President-elect Trump agree with Gen. Flynn that fear of Muslims is rational?" Todd pressed.
"He believes that no faith in and of itself should be judged as a whole," Priebus stammered. "But there are some people in countries abroad that need to be prevented from coming into this country."
"I think that's where 99 percent of Americans are at," he concluded.
