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Trump Defends Muslim Travel Proposal; Interview with Representative Mike Turner; Aired 10-10:30a ET
Aired December 08, 2015 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:02] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And nobody reported it. They used the excuse they didn't want to be racial profilers. They wanted to be politically correct. By the way the people that said that, I think in their own way they're guilty. The mother knew, the parents knew. Everybody knew. Now even his father is under watch.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: But you use --
TRUMP: We just found out.
CUOMO: You use politically correct.
TRUMP: We have -- Chris.
CUOMO: This isn't about being politically correct.
TRUMP: Chris, we can be nice. We can be politically correct, but we have a problem in this country.
CUOMO: This isn't about being politically correct.
TRUMP: And we should solve it, because you're going to have many more World Trade Centers if you don't solve it. Many, many more and probably beyond the World Trade Center.
CUOMO: I don't see the point of scaring people with the possible when the reality is we haven't had another World Trade Center. You and I both lived through it. We both lost people there. We know what the real deal is. We know who celebrated and we didn't. We know what's scaring people and what the reality is. We haven't had those kinds of attacks.
The security network has held up. And one of the reasons is our unity as a people. And I don't understand how you can see banning an entire religion as a way of saying anything other than we are what ISIS says we are. We want a war against Islam. That's who America is. And as you know, or you should know, that is not who America is, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: Chris, we are at war with radical Islamic terrorism.
CUOMO: Right, not all Islam.
TRUMP: We're at war. Whether you like it or whether you don't like it. CUOMO: Not all Islam.
TRUMP: We have a president that made a fool out of himself the other night. He doesn't even mention the term. He refuses to use the term. Nobody understands why. Hillary Clinton, because she's afraid of the president, because of her e-mail scandal, Hillary Clinton refuses to use the term. If you're not going to even use the term, you're never going to solve the problem.
CUOMO: But I don't get how you connect these dots. Because of the --
TRUMP: We are at war with radical Islam. We are at war with them.
CUOMO: Because of the e-mail scandal?
TRUMP: Chris, put it through your head. They are looking to --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: Look, everybody knows who we're at war with.
TRUMP: They are looking to do great damage. You look at what's going on in the Middle East, they are chopping off heads, they are looking to come over to other places, too. And they want the jihad.
CUOMO: Right, but --
TRUMP: It's very simple. They want the jihad.
CUOMO: But you're saying --
TRUMP: And we -- Chris. Excuse me, Chris.
CUOMO: What does that mean, they want the jihad? Well, you can't just throw out notions without any kind of checking of them. You know, this is what got you wound up on the "Philadelphia Inquirer" front page like Hitler.
TRUMP: OK.
CUOMO: They got you in a percentage of Hitler right now, a characterization of that.
TRUMP: "Philadelphia Inquirer," another newspaper going out of business.
CUOMO: Well, I know, you're going to disparage whoever criticizes you and I'm waiting for that as well. But here's the point --
TRUMP: A poll from the Center for Security Policy, released data showing 25 percent of those polls agree. Now these are Muslims living in the United States.
CUOMO: Yes.
TRUMP: Twenty-five percent of the Muslims living in the United States agreed that violence against Americans here in the United States is justified as part of the global jihad.
CUOMO: Donald, we wouldn't even put that poll on the air.
TRUMP: Chris, can I finis?
CUOMO: It's a hack organization with a guy who was dismissed from the conservative circles for conspiracy theories. You know that. It's as bad as those cop stats you put out there.
TRUMP: No, it's not. And you know what? Take a look at the Pew poll. Take a look at the Pew poll. The Pew poll was the same thing, highly respected, and the Pew poll had terrible numbers, too. But listen to this, go a step further.
CUOMO: Please.
TRUMP: Fifty-one percent of those polled agreed that Muslims in America should have a choice of being governed under the Sharia. Now, if you're talking about horrible stuff here, Chris. Now we can close the eyes, we can put the blinders on, but I don't choose to do that. Now is it temporary? Yes. It's until the country's representatives can figure out what is going on. Our country's representatives cannot figure it out.
Now the problem I have with that is, they couldn't even build a Web site for Obamacare after spending $5 billion. So how do they figure anything out? They can't figure anything out.
CUOMO: That's not fair. That's not fair.
TRUMP: Well, it's true. It's true.
CUOMO: Our security network is the best in the world. If you ask people who are in the business of keeping us safe, they say the idea of banning Muslims does nothing to help and everything to hurt. They're the experts. That's what they say. They think this idea is stupid.
TRUMP: Until -- well, when you say that, so I spoke before an audience last night, a massive audience last night.
CUOMO: Right.
TRUMP: People were there. Thousands of people inside. Thousands of people outside. They couldn't even get in. And got standing ovations as soon as this was mentioned. Standing ovations.
CUOMO: Of course you did, Mr. Trump. These are your people.
TRUMP: This is -- well, I mean, I have standing ovations from very smart people. These are intelligent people, these are great citizens. These are people that are concerned about our country. Until our country's representatives can figure it out. Now --
CUOMO: Chris Christie, Jeb Bush.
TRUMP: They've got to figure it out. They've got to figure it out.
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: The heads of the party in Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina. They all say this is wrong.
TRUMP: You guys have a tendency to call these guys -- they're not masterminds, they're not even smart people.
CUOMO: I am calling them masterminds, by the way.
TRUMP: You know, you keep call them masterminds, and you're building them up, and then you wonder why kids want to go into ISIS. The fact is, until our people can do something about these horrible people that want to do damage to our country, real damage to our country, then I think it should stay in place. But it's temporary until we can figure that out.
CUOMO: But you have all -- just about all of your rivals, except Rand Paul, and even that's qualified, they all reject this notion. Your party leaders reject this notion.
[10:05:04] TRUMP: I don't care about them. Look, look, look.
CUOMO: Well, who do you care about?
TRUMP: I've been a politician for six months because I'm doing what's right.
CUOMO: Do you have to impress anybody but yourself with these ideas?
TRUMP: I'm doing what's right. I don't care. I mean maybe this would be great --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: How do you know what's right to exempt an entire class of people, an entire religion?
TRUMP: I don't even think of it that way. I only know this.
CUOMO: How is that right? How can it be right?
TRUMP: You have people out there -- excuse me, Chris, can I talk for two seconds?
CUOMO: Please, go ahead. But I want you to tell me why it's right in America.
TRUMP: Can I talk for two seconds, Chris?
CUOMO: Go ahead, please.
TRUMP: We have people out there that want to do great destruction to our country, whether it's 25 percent or 10 percent or 5 percent, it's too much. We have people out there that want to do great, they want our buildings to come down. They want our cities to be crushed. They are living within our country and many of them want to come from outside of our country. I am saying that until we figure this out, we should have a ban. It's very simple. It's very simple.
Now, if you look at FDR, because I watched Jeffrey Lord this morning, and I thought he was fantastic, by the way. If you look at him, the presidential proclamations, 2525, 2526, and 2527, it was very -- that was very, very stringent. Very, very stringent. And I thought Jeffrey Lord did a fantastic job explaining it this morning on your show.
CUOMO: OK. Here's my question to you. I heard Jeffrey Lord. We're always happy to have him on the show. He makes your case well, no question about that.
TRUMP: Well, he makes his own case well, in all fairness. It wasn't my case.
CUOMO: Well, fine. And he certainly owns it. And --
TRUMP: To be honest with you, what Franklin Delano Roosevelt did was worse.
CUOMO: Here is the distinction. One, the United States was at war and he was targeting sovereigns he was at war against.
TRUMP: Right.
CUOMO: The second thing is, it was wrong then, it was wrong with the Japanese, and it is wrong now.
TRUMP: Excuse me, you don't think we're at war?
CUOMO: We are at war, but not with all of Islam.
TRUMP: We don't have a president that knows what it is.
CUOMO: But when you say -- you're making it worse.
TRUMP: We don't have a president that can use the term.
CUOMO: That's fine criticism.
TRUMP: Chris, we are at war.
CUOMO: You can criticize him. The reason that he won't say Islamic terrorism --
TRUMP: Of course I'll criticize him, he's an incompetent president.
CUOMO: The reason he says it --
TRUMP: Chris, we are at war.
CUOMO: All right.
TRUMP: Get it through your head.
CUOMO: Yes. I understand what you're saying, believe me. I live it. We go to these places, we cover these things. We understand the threat very well and you know that because you get a lot of your information from us, as you tell us. So I get it.
TRUMP: Why do we insist on destroying our country? Why do we -- why are we allowing Syrians in --
CUOMO: What destroys America?
TRUMP: We don't even know where they are, we don't know where they're coming from.
CUOMO: What destroys America?
TRUMP: There's no documentation, there's no paperwork. Why do we insist on destroying our country?
CUOMO: Make the system better. But what tears at America's fabric more than rejecting an entire faith in the land of religious freedom?
TRUMP: Why aren't we allowing Christian from Syria? Chris, let me ask you this. You have a large portion of people from Syria that are Christian. Why aren't we allowing the Christians in? We only allow the Muslims in.
CUOMO: That's not true.
TRUMP: Why aren't we allowing the Christians?
CUOMO: That's just not true. Does it matter to you that it's not true?
TRUMP: It is largely true because the percentage is massively in favor of the Muslims.
CUOMO: You have a massive Muslim population.
TRUMP: Excuse me, Chris, the ones that are in the bigger danger are the Christians. They're the ones having their heads chopped off.
CUOMO: Christians are in trouble. They are being allowed into the refugee program.
TRUMP: We are not allowing the Christians into anywhere near the extent that we should be.
CUOMO: Yes, you know why? Because people like you say Syrian refugees shouldn't come into the country. How can you say let the Syrian Christians in, but you don't want to let Syrian refugees in?
TRUMP: Excuse me. No, we should not let them in because we don't know who they are.
CUOMO: So you shouldn't let them in? TRUMP: We don't know where they are, we don't know if they're ISIS,
we don't know if they're a Trojan horse.
CUOMO: So you care about the Syrian Christians, but not enough to let them in.
TRUMP: Chris, let me ask you this. If we're letting in, why aren't we letting the Christians in? Why are we letting the Muslims in?
CUOMO: You tell me. You're saying no. You're the one saying on. You tell me. Why aren't we letting them in?
TRUMP: Well, I guess Obama set a policy or something. I mean --
CUOMO: No, he didn't set the policy. He is letting them in.
TRUMP: There must have been a policy set by somebody in the administration.
CUOMO: No, that's just not true. It's just not true.
TRUMP: If you happen to be a Christian in Syria, it's almost impossible to come into this country.
CUOMO: Look, the only --
TRUMP: If you're a Muslim, you can get in.
CUOMO: Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: You explain, why is that, Chris?
CUOMO: I will. Give me a second. I'll explain it to you. The refugee process is onerous. They have to go through the UNHCR first. It can take months, even years. Then it comes to the U.S. vetting. So you're making the case for refugee vetting, which many people will appreciate. It takes a long time, it's very exhaustive. However, what we're dealing with right now in the country, as you well know because you're a major proponent of it, is ignoring what you just stated as fact, which is that it's very tough to get through the refugee program, and saying even still we (INAUDIBLE) all of them out.
TRUMP: It's certainly very tough if you're a Christian. That I can tell you.
CUOMO: No.
TRUMP: If you're a Christian from Syria it's almost impossible to come into our country.
CUOMO: Let me ask you this, Mr. Trump. We've had a couple of conversations on and off camera about the GOP being fair to you. That you're not going to do a third party thing. You're going to stay true to your pledge as long as they're fair.
Can you blame the GOP for moving against you after saying something like this? Can you accuse of them being unfair if they say, listen, we can't have our nominee be someone who's tearing at the fabric of what America is? We're going to have to do something against you with the convention or whatever they come up with? Would you still hold to the pledge because you've created your own problem?
TRUMP: Well, look, there's no problem. I'm just doing the right thing, Chris. See, I'm just doing the right thing. I could have very well just rested on my poll numbers, which you just released and they're phenomenal. I'm leading everybody. And I could rest on them very nicely and there's no problem. And, you know, they go up, they go down. I have to do the right thing.
[10:10:11] I am talking about a measure, it's a measure that ends, it's not a measure that's, you know, 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 $28,000 miraculously over the last little while, deposited in their account that they're using for every sinister purposes.
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 account to do destruction and we have to find out what we're doing. And if the Republican Party likes it, that's fine. If they don't like it, that's fine also.
As you know, I'm leading in every single -- virtually every single poll. I think you just came out with one yesterday in Iowa. I'm crushing it in Iowa. I'm doing great with the people of Iowa, who I love. And frankly, I think that people will agree with me.
Hey, look, I have thousands of people -- you had your reporters there. I had thousands of people last night, right, at an event last night in South Carolina, a great place, thousands of people couldn't get in. We got standing ovations as soon as I mentioned it. I hadn't even finished the sentence. Now what I also said, and it was very important, I made the statement, it's a shut down until our country's representatives can figure out what is going on. That's important. Because that doesn't mean it's permanent. It's temporary.
CUOMO: But I'll tell you what one day --
TRUMP: But we have to get our arms around it.
CUOMO: One day --
TRUMP: And we don't want to be like Paris where you can't go into the city, where you can't go into sections where there are police. Their police are afraid to go into certain sections of Paris. They are petrified. They will not do it. They leave the (INAUDIBLE).
CUOMO: That is a mythology. They're going -- they're doing operations by the hundreds. They're getting a handle on the situation. But most importantly, they're staying together. And I think that your poll data actually reflects a responsibility on you, Mr. Trump, because people are listening to you and America is great because it is united. Our diversity is our greatest strength.
TRUMP: And you know what, they're listening to me because I have common sense. That's why. Because most of these politicians, they were not born with business ability --
CUOMO: This doesn't sound like common sense to a lot of people.
TRUMP: This is common sense, and that's why I'm doing well. I have common sense. I know what has to be done. And 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.
CUOMO: Right.
TRUMP: We don't want that, Chris. We need intelligence in this country. We need a certain toughness in this country or we're going to end up like a lot of other places and we're not going to have a country left.
CUOMO: The fear is real, there's no question about it.
Mr. Trump, thank you for coming on NEW DAY, as always, to make the case. We know that you're fighting with your throat so thank you for making the effort. I appreciate it.
TRUMP: Thank you very much.
CUOMO: The best to you.
TRUMP: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Lots of discussion. We're going to have our political analysts unpack that discussion in just a moment. But first I want to bring in the man of the hour, CNN's Chris Cuomo who, as we just heard, went toe-to-toe with Donald Trump on his latest proposal to ban all Muslims from coming to the U.S.
Chris, after such an intense interview like that, what is your reaction to what Donald Trump had to say? Did anything surprise you?
CUOMO: Well, I'm always nervous when I'm under your questioning, Pamela, as you know.
BROWN: Guess what, as you should be.
CUOMO: The smile usually belies a jab right to my nose. And I'm worried about the panel analyzing anything that I do. But I think that it's a very important moment in the campaign. I do not think that this is just another one of Donald Trump saying something that is extreme or inflammatory. I think that this goes beyond the pale. This is about what America is and what it is going to be.
I really do believe it's a defining moment. And Mr. Trump is right. The fear is real. People do want commonsense solutions. They don't trust the current leadership to do anything right. So to speak. His polls are big. He has huge leads, as he would say, in many different areas. But then you have to get to why and whether it can be maintained. I think that unlike other occasions in the past where what he has said has boosted him, even if it rankled insiders in the media.
This may be different. This goes to who America is and what it is, and whether we're going to act out of fear or out of strength. Whether we are together or whether we are divided.
BROWN: So I'm just curious. You have interviewed Donald Trump a number of times, Chris. For an interview like this, where like you said, it is so crucial, this really goes to -- this is a pivotal moment. How do you prepare for such an interview?
CUOMO: Well, I think that one of the interesting things about preparing is that you have to listen actively. It's something that you do very, very well in your own reporting. This is all about what Mr. Trump has to say and how it fits into a factorial context and the political context of this current campaign. So listening is always your best friend. That's a reporter's secret that people at home don't always know.
It's not about long lists of questions. That's what I used to do when I was preparing for the legal situations. But here, mostly you're listening and you're making sure you know the facts of the areas that he's going to look at.
[10:15:07] For instance, I think that one of the most telling things here won't get a lot of pickup, which is Mr. Trump in that interview made the case that it's too hard to get into the United States for Syrian refugees. I think that's very interesting, as a man who doesn't want to let refugees into the country because we can't vet them.
BROWN: Well, the Christians specifically. Right.
CUOMO: Right. But he said that it's an onerous process. Yes, he said Christians specifically, no question about it, you're 100 percent right. But he was pointing to a process that he said is very difficult. It's an ironic contrast from a process he pilloried as not being tough enough as to why to keep refugees out. So I think that you have to know what you're talking about and then you have to let the man make the case and check it and test it as you go along. We're both at a disadvantage today because we're both sick.
BROWN: I know. I was going to say, you're on cold medicine but maybe that worked in your favor, gave you a little bit of feistiness there, Chris.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: Now, look, you want to make it about -- look, it's tempting. It's difficult. Television very often falls into the theatrical. We avoid that, I think, well here at CNN. This is about Mr. Trump. This is about what he says, what he has to offer to the electorate and how it is accepted or rejected by them.
I don't want it to be about me and him. I take no pleasure in going against Mr. Trump. I have no personal animus against him. I've known him my entire life, I wish him well. But he does have to be tested on these things and he is in a position of leadership. It matters more when Donald Trump says it than when Rand Paul says it, with all due respect to the senator, because he's at the top of the polls.
BROWN: Yes, it's important to hear Americans -- you know, for Americans to hear his case. And you did that this morning.
Chris Cuomo, thank you. And I hope you feel better.
CUOMO: Thank you, Pamela.
BROWN: Get some rest.
All right. So let's dig a little bit deeper with Larry Sabato. He is the director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.
Larry, we just heard the interview between Donald Trump and Chris. Trump says, you know, look, he doesn't care what his rivals say. He's been saying that all along. But I want you to listen to some pretty scathing comments from Senator Lindsey Graham. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to talk to the Trump supporters for a minute. I don't know who you are and I don't know why you like this guy. I think what you like about him, he appears to be strong and the rest of us are weak. He's a very successful businessman and he's going to make everything great. He's going to take all the problems in the world and put them in a box and make your life better. That's what he's selling.
Here's what you're buying. He's a race-baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. He doesn't represent my party, he doesn't represent the values that the men and women who wear the uniform are fighting for.
You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to hell.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Pretty strong words there.
So, Larry, what would your message be to Trump supporters?
LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, I don't think they're going to listen to anybody's message but Donald Trump's. And, look, I happen to think this is a turning point to the interview that Chris Cuomo had and this issue generally.
Why, when so many other things have not affected Trump's standing? It's not that this will reduce his support among the strong supporters that Trump already has. If anything, it may intensify their support.
Here's what's significant. It is the first time in this campaign that every single other Republican candidate and most of the leadership of the Republican Party from top to bottom has objected to what Trump has said and repudiated it for the most part. This has moved people off the fence. And a lot of Republicans, believe it or not, were on the fence. Not because they agreed with Donald Trump, but because they didn't want to get in line sight of him. So that he would start tweeting about them, or that they might lose some support for their candidacy.
I think it's a very significant moment, and if we're a year from now looking back, I think we'll say that.
BROWN: This is really interesting, though. But, Larry, at the end of the day, what matters is the number of votes he gets. And at this point, he is still the frontrunner in the polls, despite, you know -- well, actually, it will be interesting to see in the wake of this GOP backlash what happens in that regard. But the bottom line is, you saw -- you heard from his supporters. They backed this idea and they're pretty passionate about it.
Do you think Donald Trump can hang on to his first place -- you know, his lead right now after making these comments?
SABATO: Yes, for a while. Look, he's a frontrunner. He's a frontrunner, as he says, nationally and in virtually every state, although Iowa is changing. But how is he a frontrunner? He's a frontrunner with low to mid-20s up to low to mid-30s, depending on the poll. Well, that means that between two-thirds and three-quarters of Republicans don't support him. And what I think all of his controversies have done -- controversy after controversy after controversy -- it has hardened the two-thirds to three quarters that are not for him.
[10:20:05] And sooner or later, they will gravitate around one or two or three opponents as opposed to the 10 or 11 or 12 opponents. That's going to have an impact.
BROWN: Interesting perspective. We will see down the road, look back on this. And if it really was a turning point, as you point out.
Larry Sabato, thank you very much. Appreciate it.
And still to come right here on NEWSROOM, House Speaker Paul Ryan, talking moments ago how he is firing back at Donald Trump right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Republican frontrunner Donald Trump says keep Muslims out. This morning, he's defending his plan to ban all Muslims from traveling to America. Moments ago, House Speaker Paul Ryan had this to say. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: Normally, I do not comment on what's going on in the presidential election. I will take an exception today.
[10:25:03] This is not conservatism. What was proposed yesterday is not what this party stands for, and more importantly, it's not what this country stands for. Not only are there many Muslims serving in our Armed Forces, dying for this country, there are Muslims serving right here in the House, working every day to uphold and defend the Constitution.
Some of our best and biggest allies in this struggle and fight against radical Islamic terror are Muslims. The vast, vast, vast, vast majority of whom are peaceful. Who believe in pluralism, freedom, democracy. Individual rights.
I told our members this morning to always strive to live up to our highest ideals, to uphold those principles in the Constitution on which we swear every two years that we will defend. That's why we are here, and that is why we're going to stay here to do the people's House and do the people's work.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And with us now is Representative Mike Turner.
Representative Turner, on "NEW DAY" just a few hours ago, Trump said he has no doubt that America needs a Muslim travel ban, until, quote, "our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on." Your response.
REP. MIKE TURNER (R), OHIO: Well, not only is it deplorable, it absolutely shows that Donald Trump is not qualified to be president of the United States or hold any elective office. It shows he doesn't understand our laws, he certainly doesn't understand our history, or even the history of humanity. But even more, for anybody who's listening to Donald Trump's words, those should be signs of danger. Any time someone takes a broad brush and believes that they're seeking a leadership position where they would single out a group of individuals based upon their religion, you can bet that your religion, my religion is at risk also.
It doesn't go to our Constitution, it doesn't go to our laws and it certainly says something about his vision of America. That's not my vision of America, I don't think it's the American public's vision of America, and I certainly hope he is resoundingly rejected for having said these outrageous comments.
BROWN: And we just heard from the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, on this. What's your response to what he had to say?
TURNER: I think the speaker very eloquently said this goes right to the heart of really the principles of America. It goes to our Constitution and it certainly shows that Donald Trump is not fit to hold office anywhere in this country. BROWN: But the fear that his supporters have is not unfounded. Do
you believe that the government and Congress is doing enough to protect Americans?
TURNER: Well, we certainly are in a situation where the president does not have any strategy to fight Islamic extremism or ISIL or ISIS. What we do see, though, is that there is a path that we can both protect America and protect our national security. You know, the 9/11 Commission report did a great job of this. It identified specifically Islamic extremism as the issue. It certainly did not go against Muslims and Muslim faith.
It went only against the issue of extremism and how it represents a terrorist threat to the United States. That's where the president is failing in that he doesn't have a strategy, so we're seeing an increase in threat and certainly that goes to the issue of fear.
BROWN: So then --
TURNER: The president needs to come forward with a strategy, but Donald Trump needs to be resoundingly rejected.
BROWN: So then how do we destroy ISIS, Congressman, and keep terrorists from entering our country?
TURNER: You know, the president unfortunately conceded the territory in Iraq and Syria when he both declared a red line and then took no action in Syria and withdrew our trips from Iraq, allowing ISIS to gain a territory from which they could then plot attacks against the United States. It's exactly why we went into Afghanistan, it's exactly why we should not have left Iraq. The president, though, has had a tepid response, even downplaying the threat to ISIS, even on the days where attacks have occurred in Paris and in the United States.
The president needs to step up to the plate. He needs to understand we need a strong strategy to attack ISIS. He says we need to, you know, diminish them and destroy them and he needs to set about tasking our military to do that.
BROWN: All right. Representative Mike Turner, we'll leave it there. Thank you very much.
TURNER: Thank you.
BROWN: And still to come right here in NEWSROOM, stunning information is emerging about one of the San Bernardino killers. Tashfeen Malik's former classmates are speaking out about the girl they knew. Details up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
