Donald Trump told Fox News’ Sean Hannity that he would force even U.S. citizens found to have extremist views to leave the country as president.
Hannity asked Trump what he would do about individuals like Seddique Mateen, the Afghanistan-born father of the man who killed dozens in an Orlando nightclub in June and has criticized the U.S.
“What do we do when we find somebody that has extreme views?” Hannity asked in a town hall that was taped Tuesday but aired Wednesday so that it wouldn’t interfere with the live broadcast of Trump’s speech in Milwaukee. “Do we throw them the hell out?
“I’d throw him out,” Trump said of Mateen, who is a naturalized U.S. citizen. “If you look at him, I’d throw him out.”
Trump did not clarify where those identified as “extreme” would be sent, but said “racial profiling” was necessary to root out people who might pose a threat to national security.
“Whether it’s racial profiling or politically correct, we better get smart,” he said. “We are letting tens of thousands of people into our country. We don’t know what the hell we’re doing.”
Trump first advocated profiling Muslim Americans after Seddique Mateen’s son Omar went on a deadly rampage at the Pulse LGBT nightclub. In the town hall, he insisted, yet again, that Muslim Americans are not doing their part to help U.S. authorities identify terrorist threats.
“We have to be so tough and so smart and so vigilant, and, frankly, the Muslims have to help us, because they see what’s going on in their community,” Trump said. “We don’t see it. They have to help us. If they are not going to help us, they are to blame also.”
The Republican nominee gave a few more hints at the details of “extreme vetting” plan for refugees, which involves a ban on immigrants from countries with a “history of terrorism” and, as of this week, an ideological admissions test for all prospective immigrants. At least one proposal he introduced—screening the social media accounts of refugees and terrorist suspects in the U.S.—is already in use by the intelligence community.
“We didn’t look at social media,” Trump said of the married couple who went on a shooting spree at a holiday party in San Bernardino, California last December. “They just came in.”
After the San Bernardino shooting, FBI Director James Comey dismissed reports that shooters Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik made open posts on social media about martyrdom or committing terrorism. Comey said their communications were private messages that would not have been readily accessible by intelligence agencies.
