Zakaria: I Called Trump a Bigot ‘Because I Couldn’t Just Hunker Down’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:

ZAKARIA: "You know, it was a hard piece to write. I've been doing this kind of thing for about 25 years, commenting on public policy. I've never written a column that I can recall that ever said, as a Indian American, as a Muslim. I believe in trying to persuade people with logic and reason, and argument. And not, you know, use my identity as some kind of badge one way or the other. And so do I think to a large extent, most of my viewers probably don't know where I come from.

BOLDUAN: "Right."

ZAKARIA: "But I felt like this was a case where Trump was making it so difficult to stay in that common space where you are having a kind of argument about the ideas. Because he was branding an entire group of people one way that I had to kind of stand -- come out and be counted. It felt like I couldn't just hunker down and pretend this would pass."