Trump doubles down on tough-talk. The Chad Hasty Show airs 8:30-11am on 790AM KFYO.

Scott Olson, Getty Images
Scott Olson, Getty Images
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Trump Doubles Down

According to POLITICO, Donald Trump is calling for an increase in surveillance of Muslims living in America.

Following the release of a new video from the terrorist group threatening an attack in New York City, Trump called upon Mayor Bill de Blasio to restart surveillance of mosques and the city's Muslim community, which the New York Police Department began shortly after the 9/11 attacks in an attempt to keep tabs on potential terrorist threats. De Blasio disbanded the unit in April 2014.

"There’s hatred and there’s hatred like nobody has ever seen, and it’s obviously emanating from and coming out of, among other places, the mosques," the Republican presidential candidate said in a Thursday interview with Sirius XM's "Breitbart News Daily."

"I think we ought to start [surveillance] up again, and we ought to start it up this morning. We ought to start it up again and get going. And use your head. This is a lot of nonsense that we ended that," he went on.

The program was a "good thing" that yielded "frankly good information," he remarked. "And I think we ought to start it up and not be naive and not be stupid. And they ought to start that up immediately."

"As far as weapons, they’ll use anything they can get," Trump said of terrorists, mocking concerns about a potential erosion of civil liberties. "These people will use anything — they’re not worried about 'Oh gee, this isn’t ethical.' These are not people that are politically correct."

A federal lawsuit was filed in 2012 challenging the New York Police Department's surveillance of Muslim communities and alleging that police used the plaintiffs' Muslim identity as a “permissible proxy for criminality.” In October, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit reversed a previous decision that the plaintiffs did not have standing, as well as ruling that it could not accept "national security" as a reason for the NYPD's surveillance. The case is ongoing.

In an interview with Yahoo News published Thursday, Trump did not rule out warrantless searches or registering Muslims in a database.

“We’re going to have to do things that we never did before. And some people are going to be upset about it, but I think that now everybody is feeling that security is going to rule,” Trump told Yahoo in response to a question about the searches. “And certain things will be done that we never thought would happen in this country in terms of information and learning about the enemy. And so we’re going to have to do certain things that were frankly unthinkable a year ago.”

Comments like these will reignite the debate over data collection, something Marco Rubio has been hitting Ted Cruz on, and how much freedom we are willing to give up in the name of security.

The American people might be willing to go along with what Trump is saying now, but in 3 months, I'm not so sure.

Clinton Talks About ISIS

According to CNN, Hillary Clinton outlined what she believed the strategy should be to defeat ISIS.

Hillary Clinton is calling for more allied planes, more airstrikes and a "broader target set" -- though no large-scale mobilization of U.S. ground troops -- to combat the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria.

She called on Congress to approve a new authorization of the use of military force against ISIS, saying that doing so would signal "that the U.S. is committed to this fight. The time for delay is over. We should get this done."

In the wake of the Paris attacks, for which ISIS has claimed responsibility, Clinton said that "every society faces a choice between fear and resolve" -- an indirect shot at her Republican foes in the 2016 presidential race, who have called for the United States to shut out Syrian refugees.

"This is no time to be scoring political points. We must use every pillar of American power, including our values, to fight terror," Clinton said.

She said airstrikes by an international anti-ISIS coalition "will have to be combined with ground forces actually taking back more territory from ISIS," the former secretary of state said Thursday in a speech in New York City.

Clinton called for more "flexibility" for U.S. Special Operations forces and trainers to work with regional forces -- particularly Sunnis and Kurds -- in opposing ISIS. She said she is open to sending more than the 50 of those forces that President Barack Obama has already mobilized. But Clinton said she opposes a new U.S. ground war in the Middle East.

"That is just not the smart move here," Clinton said.

But she did not detail her plans if regional powers fail to supply more troops and arms for the fight.

Instead, Clinton sought to ramp up pressure on Iraq's Shia-led government and on Turkey to set aside old grievances, saying that "the threat from ISIS cannot wait." She said Qatar and Saudi Arabia "need to stop their citizens from directly funding extremist organizations." And she acknowledged that the U.S. desire to see the ouster of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, who she said has slaughtered more Syrians than terrorists have, isn't a top priority.

"We need people to turn against the common enemy of ISIS," Clinton said.

Sounds like more of the same from a Democrat. I'm not sure any voter should take Hillary Clinton seriously when it comes to foreign policy. Her record as Secretary of States proves that she can't handle the job.

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