Hillary Clinton accused Donald Trump of “giving aid and comfort” to terrorist adversaries by seeking to exploit the unfolding manhunt gripping New York after a succession of weekend bombings.
As police named an Afghan-born suspect they believe is linked to attacks in New York and New Jersey, the Democratic presidential nominee urged a targeted approach rather than Trump’s call for blanket immigration restrictions.
“We are going to have to go after the bad guys and we are going to get them, but we are not going to go after an entire religion and give Isis exactly what it is wanting,” Clinton told reporters at a press conference outside New York City.
“The kinds of rhetoric and language that Mr Trump has used is giving aid and comfort to our adversaries,” she added.
She insisted that Trump had no plan, while she was the only candidate with experience of being “part of the hard decisions to take terrorists off the battlefield”.
Clinton said she had long supported tougher vetting for people coming into the US, but the events in New York – which included a bomb injuring 29 people on Saturday night in Manhattan – could be seen as a boost to Trump’s agenda, which has included a ban on Muslims entering the US and surveillance of mosques.
Barack Obama was set to address the unfolding terrorism alert later on Monday in New York City, where he is attending the United Nations general assembly amid a huge police security exercise to combat what authorities fear may be an active terrorist cell.
Trump quickly responded to what he claimed was a “disgusting attempt” by Clinton to distract from US foreign policy failures by suggesting he was a traitor.
“Hillary Clinton’s comments today accusing Mr Trump of treason are not only beyond the pale, it’s also an attempt to distract from her horrible record on Isis,” said a campaign spokesman.
“If Clinton really wants to find the real cause of Isis, she needs to take a long, hard look in the mirror. The decision to remove all American troops from Iraq in 2011, which was vigorously supported by Clinton, created the vacuum that led to the founding of Isis.
“The only thing we can expect from a Hillary Clinton presidency is more attacks on our homeland and more innocent Americans being hurt and killed,” added the Trump statement.
Earlier, Trump was quick to link the unfolding crisis with a politically charged debate over US immigration policy and the resettlement of refugees from Syria that could prove a key factor in the presidential election.
“Clinton wants to allow hundreds of thousands of these same people,” Trump told Fox News on Monday. “They have such hatred and sickness in their heart.
“Diminishing the threat the Obama administration has allowed to materialise on its watch puts us all at risk and is another reminder that we need new leadership in the fight against radical Islamic terrorism,” added a Trump spokesman, Jason Miller, in a statement. “Hillary Clinton has backed President Obama’s failed Isis strategy to the hilt, and voters should know whether she too shares the White House’s troubling assessment of the situation.”
“We chose resolve not fear,” responded Clinton in her press conference. “We will not turn on each other and undermine our values. We are stronger together.”