GOP front-runner Donald Trump told
CNN's Anderson Cooper Wednesday night that he believes "Islam hates us," and called for blocking people with "a tremendous hatred" from coming into the United States.
"We have to be very vigilant," Trump told Cooper on his
"Anderson Cooper 360" program. "We have to be very careful. And we can't allow people coming into this country who have this hatred of the United States."
Trump told Cooper that the "tremendous hatred" partly defines the religion, while maintaining the war is against radical Islam, and when Cooper asked him if the hate is "in Islam itself," Trump replied that that is something Cooper and others in the media would have to figure out.
In December, Trump made headlines calling for a temporary ban on Muslims coming into the United States, and continues to stand by that, even though his words have been widely criticized.
And on Wednesday, Trump told Cooper that there "can be no doctrine" about how he would show his power internationally.
Also on the program, Trump declined to say what measures he would support when it comes to targeting families of terrorists or his call to bring back waterboarding and torture methods that "go a lot further," telling Cooper he would "work on it with the generals."
But he'd still want to "play the game at a much tougher level than we're playing it now."
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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