Sen. Mazie Hirono (D., Hawaii) told MSNBC's Jacob Soboroff on Tuesday that President Trump's temporary immigration ban specifically targets Muslims before comparing the executive order to Japanese internment camps during World War II.
Soboroff first played a clip of Sen. Orrin Hatch (R., Utah) blasting Senate Democrats for boycotting confirmation votes for two of Trump's Cabinet nominees: Steve Mnuchin for treasury secretary and Tom Price for health and human services secretary.
"This is one of the most alarming things that I've seen in my whole 40 years in the United States Senate. There is a fellow and a woman on the other side that I do not care for," Hatch said. "I care for every one of them. Normally they're very honorable and decent people. That's why it's so shocking to me that they're not here."
"All of these people are being voted no by all of the Democrats. What's the matter with the other party? Are they that bitter about Donald Trump?" Hatch added.
Soboroff asked Hirono to respond to Hatch's statement and say whether she is bitter about Trump being the president. Hirono said that she is not bitter about Trump but instead is focused on Trump's actions, saying they speak louder than words.
"Right now, every day that goes by, we're not even into week two of the Trump presidency and already he has issued an executive order that has raised concerns all over the world, including, of course, our own country, and that is his executive order on immigration that targets Muslims," Hirono said.
Hirono said that every time the U.S. government goes down the path of targeting a minority group, history proves government wrong.
"Every time we go down that path to target a minority group, history proves us to be very, very wrong. It happened with American Indians, slavery, with the Chinese Exclusion Act, with the Japanese internment. Therefore, if we don't stand up to this executive order now, we will be complicit," Hirono said.
Hirono is not the first Democrat to compare Trump's executive order to the Japanese internment camps of World War II. Rep. Mark Takano (D., Calif.) made the comparison on Monday while speaking on the House floor, the Hill reported.
The history of the U.S. government forcing Japanese Americans to live in camps after the attack on Pearl Harbor is personal for Takano: His parents and grandparents were among the people in those camps.
"History often forces us to ask ourselves: How would we have acted if we lived in that moment?" Takano mused in a fiery House floor speech. "Through the president's recent executive order, we no longer have to wonder."
"How you react to the Muslim ban today is how you would have reacted to the imprisonment of my grandparents and parents 75 years ago. If you are silent today, you would have been silent then. If you are complicit today, you would have been complicit then."
Trump, a week into his presidency, issued an executive order temporarily barring U.S. entry for citizens from seven Muslim-majority countries: Iran, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, Somalia, Sudan and Libya. The order also indefinitely halts all Syrian refugee resettlement in the U.S. and temporarily suspends all refugees.