Piers Morgan gave US political commentator Ann Coulter short shrift when she spoke about Muslims on Good Morning Britain.
Coulter, known for her extremely conservative views, asked "why do we need them?". Morgan counters: "When you say ‘why do we need them?’ Are you talking about all Muslim people? There’s 1.6 billion Muslims in the world.
“When you say ‘why do we need them?’, what do you mean?”
She clarifies: "“No, no, I mean why does our country need them?
“The point is America is not a battered women’s shelter."
An incredulous Morgan continues: "Would you deport every Muslim currently living as a United States citizen - of which there are 3-4 million. Would you literally deport them?
Piers Morgan spoke with Ann Coulter on Good Morning Britain
Coulter hesitates, before she being “no the point is….
But it’s too much for Morgan, who - clearly agitated - cuts in: “You’re hesitating! You actually are seriously contemplating deporting three to four million people.”
Coulter insists that she’s not hesitating, blaming the London-New York delay.
But Morgan is getting into his stride now and continues: “It’s very worrying for any Muslim in America, who is a United States citizen when they hear a guy who may be president, Donald Trump, say ‘I want to ban all Muslims’ - and he hasn’t really clarified what he means yet.
“You’ve said you want to stop all Muslims coming in but what about - and just answer the question - what do you want to do about the three to four million existing Muslim American citizens who, by your logic, should comprise the same threat as Muslims living outside the country coming in?”
Unperturbed, Coulter counters: “I got the question. The answer is, whether they’re Muslim or not, anyone who goes to certain countries - North Korea for example, engaging in transactions with North Korea, Cuba, drug cartels in Latin America - we already have laws on the books that if you do that you will be subject to up to 30 years in prison and millions of dollars of fines. We could just extend that.
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“I don’t really care if they’re Muslims or not. If you go to Syria then yeah, I think we ought to look at them before they come back.
“Right now there are a thousand open investigations, Isis investigations, of individuals in the US. Yeah, some of them may be ‘home grown’ after running into some of these productive immigrants we bring in. But why should american tax payers be spending money on these investigations?
“Just to say ‘he’s a citizen, he’s okay’, one of the san Bernardino shooters was a quote ‘US citizen’."
But Morgan has clearly reached the end of his tether, telling Coulter: “Maybe it might be slightly more helpful to the American people if we deported you Ann Coulter from the US?”
Susanna Reid, Morgan co-host, looked utterly stunned as he then signed off from the conversation.
On Tuesday, Coulter praised Donald Trump’s call to ban Muslims - but actually said that she didn’t think his proposals went far enough.
She tweeted that Trump's plan should be applied to all immigrants, not just those who practice Islam, saying:
She also described Trump’s proposals as her “best birthday gift”.