Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump defended his Monday proposal to bar Muslims from entering the United States, telling Fox News’ Greta Van Susteren that the U.S. “can’t let this happen.”
Trump also addressed what would happen to Muslims in the U.S. military, telling Van Susteren that they will “come home,” adding further though that the U.S. needs “to be vigilant.”
“Absolutely,” Trump said when asked if he believes in his statement. “We have problems going on, nobody wants to talk about he problems. I watched the president last night in one of the most ridiculous speeches I’ve ever seen, and he doesn’t want to address the real problem. He won’t even mention the term — the term, the name of what’s going on. So when you have a president like that, you’re never going to solve problems.”
Trump said Muslims American citizens would remain, but said the shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., highlighted the problem of radicalization in the Muslim community.
“There’s a lot of bad things going on,” Trump said. “I have Muslim friends Greta, and they’re wonderful people. But there’s a tremendous section of Muslims living in our country who have tremendous animosity. We can’t let this happen.”
The Fox News host went on to press Trump over the length of the ban given that the statement says it will last “until our country’s representatives can figure out what is going on.” Trump simply repeated the statement and refused to elaborate on specifics.
“We have to figure out what’s going — very simple,” Trump said. “The hatred, the level of death, the level of violence. We have to be able to figure out what’s going on. People don’t understand what’s happening, but we have to be able to figure it out.”
“People want protection, they want strength,” Trump added at the end of the interview.
