Donald Trump Advocates Increased Military Strikes, Mosque Surveillance After Orlando Shooting
The U.S. needs “intelligence gathering like we have never had before,” he said.
— -- Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump, responding to questions this morning about the shooting at an Orlando nightclub, doubled down on his pledge to stop Muslims from entering the U.S.
“We have to have a ban on people coming in from Syria and coming in different parts of the world with this philosophy that is so hateful and so horrible,” Trump said on “Good Morning America.”
“I want strength, I want vigilance, I want people to report when they see something bad,” he said. “The last thing I want is congratulations. I was right, and I had been right, and I am right.”
ABC’s George Stephanopoulos asked Trump how a ban would have changed the situation in Orlando, given that the shooter, Omar Mateen, was a U.S. citizen.
“We have many people coming in whose hate is equal to his and just as bad and even worse, frankly. And we have to stop people from coming in — we have no documentation. We don’t know where they come from. They could be ISIS,” he answered.
Trump said the U.S. needs “intelligence gathering like we have never had before” and reiterated his call for mosque surveillance. “We have to be very strong in terms of looking at the mosques,” he told Fox News.
In an interview with “CBS This Morning,” Trump seemed to suggest that the Muslim community knows “who the bad apples are, where the bad seeds are.”
“Interestingly, the community, the Muslim community, the community where this maniac lived and where others lived — as an example, in San Bernardino, they found bombs all over the apartments and all over the floors. Many people saw that,” Trump said. “They don’t report these people. The people know who the bad apples are, where the bad seeds are, and they don’t report them. There’s very little reporting of people like this.”
Trump also lashed out at Hillary Clinton on Fox News this morning, saying Clinton is “not the right person” to lead the country, “especially in these times.”
“She’s a weak person. She’s weak on so many different levels,” Trump told “Fox and Friends.”
Trump went on to hit President Barack Obama, hinting that there was a specific reason these attacks keep happening.
"He doesn’t get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands. It’s one or the other. And either one is unacceptable, No. 1, and No. 2, calling on another gun ban, I mean, this man has no clue,” Trump said cryptically on Fox News.
Trump advocated increased military action overseas, though he declined to answer if he would support immediate military strikes against Raqaa, an ISIS stronghold in Syria.
“We’re going to have to start thinking about something, because we cannot continue to let this go forward,” Trump said.
In his interview on Fox News, Trump expressed support for the LGBT community.
“What he’s done to the LGBT, what he’s done to the whole gay community is so, is so shocking ... They have to be so strong in coming out and so vigilant. What’s going to happen with that community is, I think, you’re going to at least have now some political pressure on our politicians to do the right thing.”
Trump will be speaking about national security later today in New Hampshire.