Washington: Republican frontrunner Donald Trump today defended his call on banning all Muslims from entering the US, saying it would be a temporary move till the time officials and leadership figure out ways to tackle radical Islam.
Virtually isolated in Republican party leadership and being slammed by Democrats after he made the controversial statement, Trump asserted that his call to ban Muslims from entering the US is not unconstitutional.
“It’s not unconstitutional keeping people out, frankly, until we get a hold of what’s going on,” Trump told MSNBC.
He referred to such a move by then president Franklin Roosevelt against Germans, Italians and Japanese.
“I’m not looking at it long-term. We have to get our hands around a terrible problem,” said Trump.
“Because he had to do it. Because, look, we are at war with radical Islam. We are at war, Joe, whether we like it or not,” he said.
Responding to a question, he said, he is not proposing internment camps.
“But we have to get a hand around a very serious problem. And it’s getting worse. And you will have more World Trade Centers and you will have more bigger than the World Trade Center if we don’t toughen up, smarten up, and use our heads,” he said.
In another interview to the CNN, Trump said he does not want another 9/11 type attack in the US.
“We don’t want have a situation like Paris and we don’t want to have another World Trade Center which, by the way, they tried to knock down twice. The first time they were unsuccessful. We don’t want that, Chris. We need intelligence in this country. We need a certain toughness in this country or we’ll end up like a lot of other places and we’re not going to have a country left,” he said.
Referring to a Fox News report, Trump said terrorist Syed Farook mysteriously received USD 28,500 two weeks before he and his wife Tashfeen Malik shot dead 14 people and injured 17 others in California.
“I have to do the right thing. I am talking about a measure, it’s a measure that ends, it’s not a measure that’s in stone. We have to find out what we’re doing. We’re letting people into our country. We don’t know who they are. We have people here right now that are getting USD 28,000 miraculously over the last little while deposited in their account that they’re using for every sinister purposes,” he said.
“There are, like these two, this husband and wife, this horrendous, horrible husband and wife, you have many other people like that in this country. You have many other people that are having checks deposited in their accounts to do destruction and we have to find out what we’re doing,” Trump said.