Hillary: ‘Unrealistic to Say We’re Going to Completely Shut Down Our Borders’

Tuesday on NBC’s “Today,” Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton reacted to the apparent terrorist attack that resulted in at least 31 dead and 130 injured in Brussels earlier in the day.

Clinton talked about tighter security. However, she dismissed the idea of closing the borders, which her GOP counterpart Donald Trump had proposed.

“Well Savannah, you’re right that we’re not sure yet but it’s also true that we have been confronting the threat of terrorism for quite some time,” Clinton said. “And this is the latest terrible manifestation of it. We’ve got to tighten our security. I’ve talked about our visa system and our passenger name reference system. When I was secretary of state, we often had some difficulties with our European friends because they were reluctant to impose the kind of strict standards we were looking for. That’s after Paris has changed and we need to do much more to tighten things up.”

“And I know our security professionals are working to do that,” she continued. “But it’s unrealistic to say we’re going to completely shut down our borders to everyone. You know, that would stop commerce for example and that’s not in anybody’s interests. But we have to do a much better job in coordination with the Europeans on tracking and following anyone who has any connection with terrorist activity or terrorism.”

Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor

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