Donald Trump Positions on Homeland Security
I don’t want to be politically correct: Islam hates us
Q: You told CNN, “Islam hates us.” Did you mean all 1.6 billion Muslims?
TRUMP: I mean a lot of them.
Q: Do you want to clarify the comment?
TRUMP: I’ve been watching the [other candidates in the] debate today. And they’re talking about radical Islamic terrorism. But I will tell you this. There’s tremendous hatred. And I will stick with exactly what I said.
Sen. Marco RUBIO: I know that a lot of people find appeal in the things Donald says because he says what people wish they could say. The problem is, presidents can’t just say anything they want. It has consequences, here and around the world.
TRUMP: Marco talks about consequences. Well, we’ve had a lot of consequences, including airplanes flying into the World Trade Center. I don’t want to be so politically correct. I like to solve problems. We have a serious, serious problem of hate. There is tremendous hate. Where large portions of a group of people, Islam, large portions want to use very, very harsh means.
Snowden was a spy; if Russia respected us, they’d deport him
Q: Senator Cruz, in 2013, you said you were open to the possibility that Edward Snowden had performed a considerable public service in revealing certain aspects of the NSA procedures. Many of your colleagues, including Senator Rubio, called him a traitor It took you until January of this year to call him a traitor.
CRUZ: As someone who spent much of his life in law enforcement, I believe you should start with the facts and evidence first before ending up with the verdict. When the news first broke of the US government engaging in massive surveillance on American citizens, that was a very troubling development, and it’s why the US Congress acted to correct it. Since then, the evidence is clear that Snowden committed treason.
TRUMP: I will tell you right from the beginning, I said Snowden was a spy and we should get him back. And if Russia respected our country, they would have sent him back immediately, but he was a spy. It didn’t take me a long time to figure that one out. Believe me.
Charge rich countries like Germany more to defend them
KASICH: We’re in agreement that the Japanese need to do more. We’re in agreement that the Europeans need to do more. But, at the same time, we have to rebuild the military. I have a balanced budget plan that cuts taxes, reforms regulations, but also builds the military, puts a $100 billion dollars more in defense.
TRUMP: We can no longer defend all of these countries, Japan, Germany, South Korea. You order televisions, you order almost anything, you’re getting it from these countries. They are making a fortune. We defend all of these countries for peanuts. You talk about budgets. We have to start getting reimbursed for taking care of the military services for all of these countries.
How did W keep us safe? WTC came down during his watch
Sen. Marco RUBIO: I thank God it was George W. Bush in the White House on 9/11 and not Al Gore. He kept us safe.
TRUMP: How did he keep us safe when the World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush? He kept us safe? That is not “safe,” Marco. That is not safe.
RUBIO: The World Trade Center came down because Bill Clinton didn’t kill Osama bin Laden when he had the chance to kill him.
TRUMP: George Bush had the chance, also, and he didn’t listen to the advice of his CIA.
Bring back waterboarding and a hell of a lot worse
Q: Sen. Cruz, you have said, “torture is wrong, unambiguously, period. Civilized nations do not engage in torture.” Is waterboarding torture?
CRUZ: Well, under the definition of torture, no, it’s not.
Q: As president, would you bring it back?
CRUZ: I would not bring it back in any sort of widespread use.
Q: Mr. Trump, you said not only does torture work, but that you’d bring it back.
TRUMP: In the Middle East, we have people chopping the heads off Christians. We have things that we have never seen before. Not since medieval times have people seen what’s going on. I would bring back waterboarding and I’d bring back a hell of a lot worse than waterboarding.
Q: Gov. Bush, Congress has passed laws banning the use of waterboarding by the military and the CIA. Would you want Congress to change that if you’re elected president?
BUSH: No, I wouldn’t. I think where we stand is the appropriate place. But what we need to do is to make sure that we expand our intelligence capabilities.
CRUZ: I think most people know exactly what New York values are. There are many wonderful working men and women in the state of New York. But everyone understands that the values in New York City are socially liberal or pro-abortion or pro- gay-marriage, focus around money and the media. Not a lot of conservatives come out of Manhattan. I’m just saying.
TRUMP: When the World Trade Center came down, I saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully than New York. You had two 110-story buildings come crashing down. Thousands of people killed, and the cleanup started the next day, and it was the most horrific cleanup. We rebuilt downtown Manhattan, and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved New York and loved New Yorkers.
Benghazi was a disaster; Gadhafi couldn’t have been worse
Q: Are Americans safer with dictators running the world in the Middle East?
TRUMP: In my opinion, we’ve spent $4 trillion trying to topple various people that frankly, if they were there and if we could’ve spent that $4 trillion to fix our roads, our bridges, and all of the other problems, we would’ve been a lot better off. We have done a tremendous disservice, not only to Middle East, we’ve done a tremendous disservice to humanity. It’s not like we had victory. It’s a mess. The Middle East is totally destabilized.
Carly FIORINA: That is exactly what President Obama said. But let’s just start with, who got it wrong? Recall that Hillary Clinton was all for toppling Gadhafi then didn’t listen to her own people on the ground. And then when she lied about the terrorist attack in Benghazi, she invited more terrorist attacks.
TRUMP: Well, people feel differently. I mean, the fact is Benghazi was a disaster because of Libya, everything just fell into place. It could not have been worse.
People saw New Jersey Muslims celebrating after 9/11
Q: Let’s talk about your claims around Muslims celebrating in the streets after 9/11. Where did you see this?
TRUMP: I saw it on television. So did many other people. It was 14 years ago. But I saw it on television. I saw clips and many people saw it in person. I’ve had hundreds of phone calls to the Trump Organization saying, “We saw it. It was dancing in the streets.” So many people saw it. And, so, why would I take it back? I’m not going to take it back.
Bring back waterboarding and other interrogation methods
Q: Do you think we should bring back enhanced interrogation like waterboarding?
TRUMP: Well, we have to be strong. You know, they don’t use waterboarding over there; they use chopping off people’s heads. They use drowning people. I don’t know if you’ve seen with the cages, where they put people in cages and they drown them in the ocean and they lift out the cage. And we’re talking about waterboarding. I would bring it back, yes. I think waterboarding is peanuts compared to what they’d do to us, what they’re doing to us, what they did to James Foley when they chopped off his head. That’s a whole different level and I would absolutely bring back interrogation and strong interrogation.
Surveil mosques but don’t close mosques
Q: You’ve said that we have to consider closing mosques. What would be your criteria for closing a mosque? And how does that square with the First Amendment? You’ve said your top priority would be to preserve and protect our religious liberties. Is that only for Christians?
TRUMP: Well, I don’t want to close mosques; I want mosques surveilled. And all I would do, certainly there are certain hot spots and everybody knows they’re hot spots. Good material was coming out of those mosques. We were learning a lot. And they were stopping problems and potential problems by learning what was happening. I don’t want to close up mosques but things have to happen where, you have got to use strong measures or you’re going to see buildings coming down all over New York City and elsewhere.
New Jersey Muslims cheered on 9/11
Q: You raised some eyebrows yesterday with comments you made at your latest rally when you claimed that “thousands and thousands” of Muslims were cheering as the World Trade Center came down on 9/11. The police say that didn’t happen and those rumors have been on the Internet for some time. So did you misspeak yesterday?
TRUMP: It did happen. I saw it. It was on television. There were people that were cheering on the other side of New Jersey, where you have large Arab populations. They were cheering as the World Trade Center came down. I know it might be not politically correct for you to talk about it, but there were people cheering as those buildings came down. It was well covered at the time.
We worry about Iranian nukes but why not North Korean nukes?
It’s not only Russia [that we’re having trouble with]. We have problems with North Korea where they actually have nuclear weapons. You know, nobody talks about it, we talk about Iran, and that’s one of the worst deals ever made. One of the worst contracts ever signed, ever, in anything, and it’s a disgrace. But, we have somebody over there, a madman, who already has nuclear weapons we don’t talk about that.
We have a problem with radical Muslims
Q: On the campaign trail, a voter said “We have a problem in this country. It’s called Muslims.” You’re not responsible for what he says, but this is raw, unvarnished, ignorant bigotry. Do you not have a responsibility to call out this hatred?
TRUMP: Well, you know, we could be politically correct, if you want. But, certainly, are you trying to say we don’t have a problem? We do have a problem with radical Muslims. As I have already said; I have tremendous people that I know that are Muslims.
