Sunday in an interview aired on CNN’s “State of the Union,” Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton said Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump’s “phony strength” makes the job of defeating ISIS harder.
Clinton said, “What unfortunately Donald Trump has done is made our job harder and given a lot of aid and comfort to ISIS operatives, even ISIS officials who want to create this as some kind of clash of civilization, a religious war. It’s not. And we can’t let it become that.”
When asked about Trump projecting strong leadership Clinton said, “Well, there’s phony strength and there’s real strength. It’s phony strength to not know what you’re talking about and to make outrageous statements that will actually make our job harder no matter how, in the moment, it sounds. Real strength is leveling with the American people and making it clear, we will defeat ISIS. I do believe that. But that we have got to make sure that here at home we’re not opening doors to people who feel that somehow they want to be part of this global movement because Donald Trump has said it’s a war between us and them, and that’s pretty attractive to people. And we’re finding more and more as we look at the profiles of some of the folks who get radicalized and recruited that there is an element of mental illness in some, there is an element of just total alienation.”
“We don’t have the depth of problems that you see in Europe because we have done a much better job of assimilating people from everywhere,” she continued. “We are a nation of immigrants and we should be proud of that. It’s a great asset. So we can’t let Trump or anybody of his ilk undermine one of our greatest strengths. So real strength will come here at home in making sure we work with law enforcement, and with schools and with community organizations to help people identify anyone who is being recruited, to try to intervene early, to have the best intelligence, an intelligence surge that will better prepare us to protect ourselves. That’s the hard work that is required. That’s the work that the people I was meeting with today from Republican and Democratic administrations know we have to do. And it’s not the loose talk and the bombastic commentary that’s going to defeat this enemy. It’s the millions of decisions by strong, patriotic Americans and our allies around the world.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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