With yet another European city touched by the scourge of jihadi terrorism, the focus of the U.S. presidential campaign quickly turned to the best way to protect America from the same threat. Not surprisingly, the responses of the Democratic and Republican frontrunners could not be more different.
Hillary Clinton warned that “terrorists seek to undermine the democratic values that are the foundation of our alliance and our way of life.” She sounded resolute in arguing that “they will never succeed.”
The response of Donald Trump, on the other hand, suggests that the terrorists already have. Calling the Brussels attack “just the beginning,” the GOP frontrunner quickly called for bringing back waterboarding and banning Muslim immigrants from entering the country, a move that Clinton said would not be “consistent with our values.” Not to be one-upped, Ted Cruz, Trump’s main remaining rival in the GOP contest, floated the idea of increased police patrols in American Muslim communities in response to the Brussels attack.