Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton stepped up her attacks on Donald Trump on Wednesday, blasting his proposals to build a wall on the Mexican border and ban Muslims from entering the country.
“A ban on Muslims would not have stopped this attack. Neither would a wall,” Clinton said, referring to this week’s shooting attack in Orlando. She was speaking in Hampton, Virginia, and quoted by The Hill.
“I don’t know how one builds a wall to keep the internet out,” Clinton mocked Trump, a remark met with applause.
The presumptive Democratic presidential nominee pointed out that the Orlando gunman, Omar Mateen, was born in New York to Afghan parents.
Trump, the presumptive GOP presidential nominee, has suggested Mateen’s parents shouldn’t have been let into the country. He’s also criticized Clinton’s and President Barack Obama’s anti-terrorism policies and their support for tougher gun control laws.
Clinton, in response, is casting Trump’s rhetoric as dangerous to the country and its national security efforts.
“His comments have become even more inflammatory in recent days,” Clinton said. “This approach isn’t just wrong; it is dangerous.
“And I want to emphasize and underline this. Of course we want to keep our country safe; that should go without saying,” she said. “But we rely on partners in majority-Muslim countries to fight terrorists.”
She reiterated that if elected president, she will make stopping “lone wolf” terrorists — people who become radicalized on their own — “a top priority.” She also pledged to create a team that would take on this challenge.
Mateen called police during the attack and told them that he had pledged allegiance to ISIS. The terror group happily claimed credit for the attack in the aftermath.
Obama has acknowledged that has the deadly shooting was an “act of terror,” but did not identify ISIS as the culprit, resulting in criticism from Trump, who suggested that the President was complicit or approved of Islamic terror attacks.
Obama fired back on Tuesday, blasting Trump as un-American and saying that his mindset is “dangerous”.
“That’s not the America we want,” he said. “It doesn’t reflect our democratic ideals. It will make us less safe.”
Obama also angrily fired back against Trump’s criticism that he failed to use the term “radical Islamic terrorism” with regards to the shooting attack at an Orlando club, calling it “loose talk.”
“What exactly would using this language accomplish? What exactly would it change?” Obama asked during remarks at the Treasury Department. “Would it make ISIL less committed to try and kill Americans?” he continued, using the alternative acronym for the Islamic State (ISIS) jihadist group.
