Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump argued that it’s “absolutely ridiculous” that the Marines attacked in Tennessee were not allowed to carry guns and thus were “just sitting there as targets” on Thursday’s “O’Reilly Factor” on the Fox News Channel.
Trump said the attack on military offices in Tennessee, was “a lack of respect, Bill, for our country, for our officials, for our leaders. It’s just total lack of respect. It’s a breakdown and, frankly, a gun-free zone — these are four great Marines, from what everybody tells me, unbelievable people, and that they are not allowed to carry guns is absolutely ridiculous. So, what happens is this guy walks in, he’s got a gun, They’re just sitting there as targets. It’s absolutely disgraceful.”
He added, “what we need in our country is better intelligence, and if we can believe the previous report, the father wasn’t exactly an angel. So, he was under watch and he was under investigation and it looks like, you know, this is something that maybe goes from the father to the son. But, the father didn’t look like an angel, and let’s see, I guess that’s going to have to be determined. But, this guy — I mean, we need better intelligence. How do you grow up and nobody in the area sees this? It seems inconceivable to me. We need stronger protection and we need better intelligence.”
Trump was asked about whether there would be backlash against Muslims, he answered, “Well, at some point it’s probably going to happen. And, you know, you have the term Islamic terrorism, which the president refuses to use, even though there seems to be quite a bit of it. If you look around the world, certainly it’s there, there’s something going on. But, it seems so sad that a whole group of people have to be blamed. But it does seem to be happening a lot, Bill. And whether it’s here or in other countries, it certainly is there. And there is a form of Islamic terrorism. President Obama refuses to use the term and nobody can quite understand why.
He continued, “if we’re going to fight elements that are causing tremendous problems, at least we have to start maybe being not so politically correct. And this is happening. It’s happening all over. It’s happening outside of our country, big league. It’s going to get worse in our country. And we better start fighting a lot tougher than we’re fighting right now, Bill, because we’re going in the wrong directions in so many different ways, not just this, but in so many different ways.”
Trump was then asked why he thought terrorism in the US would get worse, he stated, “Because I think they don’t respect our law enforcement and they don’t respect our country, and we’re taking the power away from our police. We’re taking the power away from the people that are supposed to be be protecting us, and it’s getting worse and worse all the time. Whether it’s Islamic or anything else, it’s getting worse. We’re losing law and order. They don’t respect — you look at what’s happening in Detroit. You look at what’s happening in Baltimore or Chicago, it’s getting worse all the time.”
He added that in order to rebuild respect for the police, “You have to give them back their strength. You have to give them back their power. You have to restore law and order. You have to have respect for — they’re not respecting the police anymore. I love the police. What they do is incredible. And sure, you’re going to have a couple of bad apples in any business, even in your business we have bad apples, right, Bill? You’ve got — you have too many in your business. But, you have to restore law and order, and you have to be intelligent. And you have to bring back the word intelligence. You have to bring it back. Because, a thing like this shouldn’t happen.”
Trump further said that if the shooter is tied to ISIS, “it’s a game changer. I think, probably the answer in some form is yes anyway, and they’re doing it more and more. You know, the lone wolves as they call them, they’re doing it more and more. And there have to be people that see — I mean, this guy didn’t just grow up in a vacuum. I mean, for the last year or two or three, he was radicalized. And I mean, people in his neighborhood must see it, how does it happen? Does he just sit a room all day long? I don’t think so. People must see it happening. They have to be able to call law enforcement and find out what’s going on, and they’re not doing it, and it’s a very serious situation. But we need intelligence. We don’t have intelligence in this country in so many different forms, Bill. This is one of them.
Trump then discussed what he would do with US intelligence agencies, “I’d certainly put people that are the smartest and the best. And we don’t have that right now. We have unbelievable law enforcement agencies and amazing people. Some of our most amazing people, but we’re not letting them do their job, Bill.”
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