Clinton: Trump’s Rhetoric Gives Aid and Comfort to Our Enemies
By Eric Levitz
After a weekend marked by a series of apparent, small-scale terror attacks, Donald Trump called on law enforcement to racially profile Muslim immigrant communities, which he referred to as a “cancer from within.”
On Monday, Hillary Clinton suggested that this might not be the ideal approach to counterterrorism. Asked at a press conference whether she thought terrorists might be trying to throw the election to Donald Trump, whom they see as a more convenient adversary (a rather loaded question), Clinton refused to speculate. But she did argue that we already “know” Trump’s rhetoric has benefited ISIS.
“We know that a lot of the rhetoric that we’ve heard from Donald Trump has been seized on by terrorists, in particular ISIS,” Clinton said “They are looking to make this into a war against Islam, rather than a war against jihadists, violent terrorists — people who number in the, maybe, tens of thousands, not the tens of millions. They want to use that to recruit more fighters to their cause, by turning it into a religious conflict.”
Clinton went on to note that Trump’s comments have been used for the recruitment of terrorists online, according to former CIA director Michael Hayden.
“We also know from the former head of our counter-terrorism center Matt Olsen that the kinds of rhetoric and language Mr. Trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries,” Clinton continued.
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http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2016/09/clinton-trumps-rhetoric-aids-our-enemies.html
