WASHINGTON — Donald Trump says Americans are being too politically correct about Muslims and should drop their fears of profiling.
“If they thought there was something wrong with that group and they saw what was happening, and they didn’t want to call the police because they didn’t want to be profiling, I think that’s pretty bad,” the Republican presidential front-runner said Sunday on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
“People are dead. A lot of people are dead right now,” Trump said. “So everybody wants to be politically correct, and that’s part of the problem that we have with our country.”
But fellow GOP presidential candidate Chris Christie argued the opposite on Sunday.
“The fact is we don’t need to be profiling in order to be able to get the job done here,” he said on CBS’ “Face the Nation.”
The New Jersey governor suggested a game plan of “increased surveillance (and) creating relationships with mosques in the Muslim American community across the country.”
“We did that after 9/11 and prevented attacks in New Jersey and all across the country,” he said.
Trump also argued that the families of terrorists and suspects should face more scrutiny. He said that the wives of the September 11, 2001, attackers “knew exactly what was happening.”
He said he doesn’t believe the sister of Syed Rizwan Farook, who law enforcement officials have identified as one of the shooters in the San Bernardino, California, killings last week, had no idea what her brother planned and was saddened.
“I probably don’t believe the sister,” Trump said.
CBS anchor John Dickerson asked: “So you’d go after her?”
“I would go after a lot of people and I’d find out whether or not they knew. I’d be able to find out. Because I don’t believe the sister,” Trump said.
Dickerson asked whether Trump worries that he’d go too far and take actions that inspire more terrorists.
“What’s too far? What’s too far? They’re killing people,” Trump said. “Whether it’s what we just saw in California or in Paris. They’re killing people, innocent people.”
Trump said he wants vigilance, “whether it’s mosques or whatever it has to be,” repeating his argument that some mosques should be monitored.
Trump also said that he’s eager for the end of President Barack Obama’s second term because “the problem will get solved when he gets the hell out.”
