Tuesday at CNN’s Republican presidential debate, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and his opponent former Gov. Jeb Bush (R-FL) got into a heated exchange over Trump’s calls to ban Muslims from entering the United States.
When asked about his policy proposal, Trump said, “We are not talking about isolation. We’re talking about security. We’re not talking about religion. We’re talking about security. Our country is out of control. People are pouring across the southern border. I will build a wall. It will be a great wall. People will not come in unless they come in legally. Drugs will not pour through that wall. As far as other people in the migration where they’re going —tens of thousands of people having cell phones with ISIS flags on them. I don’t think so, Wolf. They’re not coming to this country. And if I’m president and if Obama has brought some to this country, they are leaving. They’re going. They’re gone.”
Bush countered, “Well, first of all, we need to destroy ISIS in the caliphate. That should be our objective. The refugee issue will be solved if we destroy ISIS there. We need to embed our forces, our troops inside the Iraqi military. We need to arm directly—the Kurds—and all of that has to be done in concert with the Arab nations. If we’re going to ban all Muslims, how are we going to get them to be part of a coalition to destroy ISIS? The Kurds are our strongest allies. they’re Muslim. Look, this is not a serious proposal. In fact, it will push the Muslim world, the Arab world, away from us at a time when we need to re-engage with them to be able to create a strategy to destroy ISIS. So, Donald, you know, is great at the one liners. But he’s a chaos candidate. And he’d be a chaos president. He would not be the commander in chief we need to keep our country safe.”
Trump countered, “Jeb doesn’t really believe I’m unhinged. He said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. It’s been a total disaster. Nobody cares. and, frankly, I’m the most solid person up here. I built a tremendous company and all I want to do is make America great again. I don’t want our country to be taken away from us and that’s what’s happening. The policies that we’ve suffered under other presidents have been a disaster for our country. We want to make America great again. And, Jeb, in all fairness, he doesn’t believe that.”
Jeb said, “Look, he mentioned me. I can talk? This is the problem. Banning all Muslims will make it harder for us to do exactly what we need to do. Which is to destroy ISIS. We need a strategy. We need to get the lawyers off the back of the war fighters. Right now under President Obama we’ve created this standard that is so high that it’s impossible to be successful in fighting ISIS. We need to engage with the Arab world to make this happen. It is not a serious proposal to say that to the people that you’re asking to support, for their support, that they can’t even come to the country to even engage in a dialogue with us. That’s not a serious proposal. We need a serious leader to deal with this. I believe I’m that guy.”
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