Donald Trump on Monday reaffirmed his support for temporarily barring non-American Muslims from entering the U.S. during a counterterrorism and national security speech in New Hampshire.
“The only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here,” Trump said of 29-year-old Omar Mateen, who fatally shot 49 people at an Orlando, Fla., nightclub over the weekend.
Mateen was born to Afghan parents in New York. He pledged allegiance to the Islamic State terrorist organization over a 911 phone call during the shooting Sunday morning.
“That is a fact and a fact we need to talk about,” the presumptive Republican nominee said of the shooter’s background during a speech at Saint Anselm College. “We have a dysfunctional immigration system that does not permit us to determine who we allow into this country.”
“I called for a ban after San Bernardino and was met with great scorn and anger,” he said. “But now many are saying I was right to do so.”
Trump’s decision to double down on his proposal to ban Muslims from entering the U.S. comes exactly one month after he said it was “just a suggestion” during a radio interview with Fox News’ Brian Kilmeade.
“We have a serious problem, and it’s a temporary ban – it hasn’t been called for yet. Nobody has done it. This is just a suggestion until we find out what is going on,” he said at the time.
But in his speech Moday, delivered less than 48 hours after the tragic terror attack in Orlando, Trump vowed to enact such a ban if he succeeds in his bid for the White House. “When I am elected, I will suspend immigration from areas of the world where there is a proven history of terrorism against the United States, Europe or our allies.”
Such a ban would remain in place “until we understand how to end” domestic terrorism threats and develop a “responsible immigration policy” that thoroughly vets people immigrating to the U.S., he said.
“We are importing radical Islamic terrorism into the West through a failed immigration system – and through an intelligence community held back by our president,” Trump contended.
While defending his call for a temporaty ban on Muslim immigrants, Trump simultaneously criticized the Obama administration’s own counterterrorism strategy. He claimed Obama’s “failed” efforts to defeat the Islamic State and prevent Americans from becoming radicalized would only continue if Clinton is elected president.
“They have put political correctness above common sense,” Trump said of his Democratic opponents. “Above your safety and above all else.”
Clinton, who delivered a speech of her own in Cleveland, Ohio just hours before Trump spoke, was quick to respond to the billionaire’s attacks Monday afternoon.
“Inflammatory anti-Muslim rhetoric hurts the vast majority of Muslims who love freedom and hate terror,” Clinton wrote in an email to her supporters. “Islamophobia goes against everything we stand for as a nation founded on freedom of religion, and it plays right into the terrorists’ hands.”
