Trump: My ‘Tough’ Immigration Policies Would’ve Prevented 9/11

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump watches as Luis Ortiz fights Matias Ariel Vidondo of Argentina during a WBA heavyweight title bout at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015. Ortiz... Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump watches as Luis Ortiz fights Matias Ariel Vidondo of Argentina during a WBA heavyweight title bout at Madison Square Garden in New York on Saturday, Oct. 17, 2015. Ortiz won by a knockout in the third round. (AP Photo/Rich Schultz) MORE LESS
Start your day with TPM.
Sign up for the Morning Memo newsletter

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump said Sunday that he doubted the terrorist attacks on 9/11 would have happened if he were President and had his illegal immigration policies in place.

Chris Wallace, host of “Fox News Sunday” asked Trump about comments he made about President George W. Bush’s role in preventing the attacks of Sept. 11 — which were criticized by President Bush’s brother and GOP hopeful Jeb Bush.

Trump had said in an interview aired Friday, “Blame him, or don’t blame him, but he was President. The World Trade Center came down during his reign.”

Trump reiterated that stance to Wallace on Sunday.

“What would you have done?” Wallace asked Trump.

“Well, I would have been much different, I must tell you,” Trump said. “I am extremely, extremely tough on illegal immigration. I’m extremely tough on people coming into this country. I believe that if I were running things, I doubt those families would have — I doubt that those people would have been in the country.”

“So there’s a good chance that those people would not have been in our country,” Trump continued.

Trump said that he didn’t put blame on President Bush.

“With that being said, I’m not blaming George Bush,” Trump said. “But I don’t want Jeb Bush to say my brother kept us safe because September 11th was one of the worst days in the history of this country.”

Latest Livewire

Notable Replies

  1. Avatar for tomj tomj says:

    Only if his “immigration policy” includes a time machine.

  2. Wikipedia: On May 17 [2000], Mohamed Atta applied for a United States visa, receiving a five-year B-1/B-2 (tourist/business) visa the next day from the United States embassy in Berlin. Because Atta had lived in Germany for approximately five years, along with his “strong record as a student”, he was treated favorably and not scrutinized.

    I don’t want to blame George W. Bush for letting the attacks happen, I just want to claim credit for retroactively preventing the illegal immigration that had nothing to do with them. Or something. Because I have no fucking idea what I’m talking about and never do.

  3. Avatar for bkmn bkmn says:

    So how would he decide who comes to visit the US? None of the attackers were trying to emigrate here. I wonder what the airlines would think about having fewer trans-oceanic passengers.

  4. Avatar for sjk sjk says:

    I’m scared.

  5. “With that being said, I’m not blaming George Bush,” Trump said. “But I don’t want Jeb Bush to say my brother kept us safe because September 11th was one of the worst days in the history of this country.”

    Whether or not one blames Bush, and I do, I’m really glad someone is finally forcefully making this point. You can argue that Bush couldn’t have prevented the 9/11 attacks, one can claim the PDBs were too vague, etc. But it’s outrageous to allow Jeb!, W, and the entire Bush administration to continue to claim they weren’t in charge while simultaneously praising themselves for taking charge. It either happened on your watch or it didn’t, but they shouldn’t be able to continue pretending the attacks occurred on 01/20/2001 at 11:59 am.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

22 more replies

Participants

Avatar for system1 Avatar for lestatdelc Avatar for pluckyinky Avatar for mattinpa Avatar for frankly_my_dear Avatar for daveyjones64 Avatar for denisj Avatar for tomj Avatar for dddinah Avatar for darrtown Avatar for pshah Avatar for emilianoelmexicano Avatar for sjk Avatar for bkmn

Continue Discussion
Masthead Masthead
Founder & Editor-in-Chief:
Executive Editor:
Managing Editor:
Deputy Editor:
Editor at Large:
General Counsel:
Publisher:
Head of Product:
Director of Technology:
Associate Publisher:
Front End Developer:
Senior Designer: