Clinton Responds to Recent Attacks
Hillary Clinton said at a news conference in White Plains that she planned to deal with "the bad guys," jihadists and violent extremists, rather than an entire religion.
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS on Publish Date September 19, 2016. Photo by Stephen Crowley/The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »[1]Hillary Clinton[2] accused Donald J. Trump[3] on Monday of imperiling American national security with his campaign messages as Mr . Trump called for a crackdown on immigration and for unrestrained police profiling of people from the Muslim world after bombings in New York and New Jersey.
Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton split quickly in their reactions to the attack in Manhattan on Saturday night, which injured dozens. And even before a manhunt in the New York area ended in the apprehension of a suspect, Ahmad Khan Rahami, the two candidates shifted into the mode of combat.
Both candidates reached for the mantle of toughness, in starkly different ways. Mrs. Clinton stressed her national security credentials, measuring her words carefully and charging Mr. Trump with recklessness. Mr. Trump gave no ground, sounding a note of furious alarm and drawing a direct line between the attacks and an immigration system he has roundly denounced.< /p>
The stakes for both candidates in this confrontation are likely higher than they have ever been.
With seven weeks left until the election and only a week before their first debate, their handling of a potential terrorism plot on American soil could leave a durable imprint on undecided voters.
Mrs. Clinton moved to take control of the debate with a cutting attack on Mr. Trump on Monday: At a morning news conference inside an airport hangar in rainy Westchester County, she urged Americans to show "courage and vigilance," and not to demonize Muslims or Americans of foreign origin.
And describing herself as the only candidate in the race with experience fighting terrorism, Mrs. Clinton charged that Mr. Trump had helped the Islamic State and other terror groups with his campaign oratory broadly denouncing Muslims.
Citing former intelligence and counterterrorism officials who have criticized Mr. Trump, Mrs. Clinton branded the Republican nominee as a "recruiting sergeant for the terrorists."
Trump Calls For Tougher Immigration Screening
Donald J. Trump said at a campaign rally in Fort Myers, Fla., that lax immigration screening was to fault in allowing terrorist attackers to enter the United States.
By REUTERS on Publish Date September 19, 2016. Photo by Eric Thayer for The New York Times. Watch in Times Video »[4]That criticism is the most drastic version yet of an attack Mrs. Clinton has tried out recently with increasing boldness: In an interview on Israeli television[5] this month, Mrs. Clinton said the Islamic State was praying for Mr. Trump's victory, and she has warned donors at private events that foreign adversaries could seek to sway the election in her opponent's favor.
Continue reading the main story[6]Mr. Trump, she said on Monday, had helped the Islamic State and others cast their attacks as part of a religious war between Islam and the West.
"They are looking to make this into a war against Islam, rather than a war against jihadists, violent terrorists," Mrs. Clinton said, adding, "The kinds of rhetoric and language Mr. Trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries."
Mr. Trump fired back repeatedly, first in a flurry of outraged statements from his campaign and then in a long and scorching speech at a campaign rally in Fort Myers, Fla. He attacked Mrs. Clinton as "weak and ineffective," and linked her support for American military intervention overseas to terrorist attacks at home.
And Mr. Trump directly equated American vulnerability to terrorism with what he called laxness in the immigration system. Mr. Trump has mainly warned about the risk of admitting refugees from Syria and other war-torn countries, though the suspect arrested in the weekend attacks, Mr. Rahami, was a naturalized citizen born in Afghanistan, and has lived in the United States for years.
"These attacks, and many others, were made possible because of our extremely open immigration system," Mr. Trump said, adding: "Immigration security is national security."
The eruption of hostilities between the candidates came at the start of a week when both were aiming to cut a presidential profile, and to bolster their credentials on the international stage by meeting with foreign dignitaries in New York for the annual meeting of the United Nations General Assembly.
Mrs. Clinton was scheduled to confer with a series of foreign leaders, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe of Japan and President Petro Poroshenko of Ukraine, and both she and Mr. Trump announced plans to meet with President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt.
But the weekend attacks and Monday's manhunt cast the candidates' jousting over national security in a grimmer and more urgent context.
Mr. Trump, who has previously faced a backlash for his heated spoken and written words after terror attacks, also vented unfiltered fury over the blasts in New York and New Jersey. Having reacted to past attacks by calling for a crackdown on Muslim immigration and on Muslim communities in the United States, Mr. Trump again recommended more aggressive policing to thwart future plots.
In a telephone interview with Fox News that lasted most of a half-hour, Mr. Trump sketched a dark picture of the country as being under siege from international terrorists, and handcuffed in its ability to respond.
He asserted that law enforcement was being held back from intervening against suspected terrorists because of sensitivitie s about racial profiling. Mr. Trump also declared that there were "foreign connections" behind the attacks. He offered no evidence for either assertion.
"There's many foreign connections," Mr. Trump said. "I think this is one group. O.K., this is one group. But you have many, many groups, because we're allowing these people to come into our country and destroy our country."
Because of political correctness, Mr. Trump said, the police shy away from stopping even somebody who "looks like he's got a massive bomb on his back."
Graphic: How the Manhunt for the Chelsea Bombing Suspect Unfolded
[7]"If he looks like he comes from that part of the world, we're not allowed to profile," Mr. Trump said.
He also said that people who disseminate information about bomb-making in magazines should be prosecuted for inciting violence. And his campaign released a statement accusing the Obama administration of "minimizing the ISIS threat."
In some respects, the clash on Monday encapsulated the larger contrast in the race between Mr. Trump and Mrs. Clinton, and the differences in policy and political strategy that are likely to define the remainder of the campaign.
Mrs. Clinton plainly believes that she must present herself as an authoritative but steady hand in moments of violence, rather than trying to match Mr. Trump in the volume and intensity of his remarks. She has generally led Mr. Trump in most polls, though narrowly, asking voters which candidate they trust more on matters of national security and foreign policy.
Mrs. Clinton emphasized her experience in government on Monday, saying repeatedly that she had been involved the fight against terrorism in the past. "I'm the only candidate in this race who's been part of the hard decisions to take terrorists off the battlefield," she said.
She did not reiterate the finer points of her plan to attack the Islamic State and its sympathizers, some of which might have the effect of distancing her from the Obama administration or irritating the left. Mrs. Clinton has called for increased surveillance, especially online, and for the creation of a no-fly zone in Syria and increased airstrikes there.
Mr. Trump, having campaigned as a fiery nationalist throughout the 2016 campaign, has continued to channel the anger and fear of voters alarmed by terrorism. And while polls show voters have doubts about Mr. Trump's temperament and judgment, they have also regularly named him as the candidate they trust more to handle the Islamic State.
Still, Mr. Trump, who drew criticism over the weekend for having declared that a bomb went off in New York, before the police had confirmed that fact, was unabashed about his lack of restraint on Monday. On Fox, Mr. Trump applauded himself for having been proven right about the blast.
"I should be a newscaster," he said. "I called it before the news."
Because of an editing error, an earlier version of this article misstated the surname of the suspect in the bombings in New Jersey and New York. He is Ahmad Khan Rahami, not Rahmani.
References
- ^ Watch in Times Video » (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ More articles about Hillary Clinton. (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ More articles about Donald J. Trump. (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ Watch in Times Video » (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ an interview on Israeli television (www.nytimes.com)< /small>
- ^ Continue reading the main story (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ Graphic: How the Manhunt for the Chelsea Bombing Suspect Unfolded (www.nytimes.com)
- ^ Continue reading the main story (www.nytimes.com)
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