Even Dick Cheney believes Donald Trump's plan for a “total and complete shutdown” of Muslims entering the U.S. is extreme.

Said Cheney to conservative radio host Hugh Hewitt.

“I think this whole notion that somehow we can just say no more Muslims, just ban a whole religion, goes against everything we stand for and believe in. I mean, religious freedom has been a very important part of our history and where we came from….A lot of people, my ancestors got here, because they were Puritans…There wasn't anybody here then when they came, but it's a mistaken notion.”

He added:

“You've got to set up a vetting process. And that's crucial, but I think the way you've got to begin to deal with that problem is to go back and look at why they're here. And they're here because of what's going on in the Middle East. And what's going on in the Middle East is the result of a U.S. vacuum. It's the result of the rise of ISIS, civil war in Syria. I've heard proposals that I think make sense that we ought to establish safety zones, if you will, in the northern part of Syria where you've got them secured, you've got sufficient forces, hopefully of locals that would be there to protect the area, but that's where people who are fleeing the terrible tragedy that's going on inside the caliphate, a place where they could reside. But it also takes the pressure, then, off of the refugee flow, the move to Europe of thousands of refugees and the move here to the United States.”