Secretary of State Hillary Clinton took a hard stance against rhetoric from GOP frontrunner Donald Trump, painting him as a potent and powerful tool for ISIS.
“He is becoming ISIS's best recruiter. They are going to people showing videos of Donald Trump insulting Islam and Muslims in order to recruit more radical jihadists," Clinton said during Saturday's Democratic debate, hosted by ABC News.
Clinton offered no specific evidence of the claim. ABC News has reached out to the Clinton and Trump campaigns for comment.
When asked about her emphasis on gun control in the wake of the San Bernardino attacks, Secretary Clinton took the opportunity to bash Trump – who she says is pushing the wrong narrative in the fight against ISIS.
“I worry greatly that the rhetoric coming from the Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, is sending a message to Muslims here in the United States and literally around the world that there is a clash of civilizations,” said Clinton, “that there is some kind of western plot or even war against Islam, which then I believe fans the flames of radicalization."
The Best Zingers From the Final Democratic Debate of 2015 Bernie Sanders Apologizes to Hillary Clinton Over Accessing Voter DataClinton also said that she does not believe that calls to arm more Americans in the wake of recent terror attacks will make Americans safer.
“Guns in and of themselves, in my opinion, will not make Americans safer. We lose 33,000 people a year already to gun violence. Arming more people to do what I think is not the appropriate response to terrorism,” she said.
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