Republican rivals blast Trump for Muslim database comments

He said “trouble’s coming out of the mosques” in the U.S. and “we’re kidding ourselves” if law enforcement doesn’t keep close tabs.

Carson added that funding for Federal Bureau of Investigation surveillance activities should be increased.

Donald Trump twice repeated over the weekend that he saw people cheering in New Jersey after the September 11 attacks – but his claims are being widely disputed as false.

If Im treated fairly, Im fine.”The billionaire and former reality show star is leading the race for the GOP nomination for the fourth straight month, with Republican establishment candidates such as Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio far behind. And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, who has largely avoided criticizing Trump throughout the 2016 campaign, said, “I’m not a fan of government registries of American citizens”.

It was not clear what Trump was referring to.

Also Thursday evening, New Day for America, a super PAC supporting Ohio Gov. John Kasich, announced plans to launch a $2.5 million ad campaign targeting Trump.

But in a Fox News Channel interview on Friday night, Mr Trump tried to clarify his position. “I mean he must have a few kind of a thing going because, you know, when you see that he won’t even call them by their name, attack after attack after attack”, Trump said Wednesday on Boston’s WRKO radio.

“There are certain hot spots, and everybody knows (the mosques) are hot spots”, Trump told ABC’s George Stephanopoulos. He said that it was not him who suggested a database of Muslims, but a reporter.

Donald Trump has said in an interview that he would bring back waterboarding if he was made President. He’s yet to apologize for a string of remarks that reporters and rivals have balked at, and his comments about mosques, refugees, and surveillance are no different. “I don’t know that Trump’s going to need that”. “We’ve had it before, and we’ll have it again”.

Trump has also the USA should increase surveillance of mosques and consider closing those that are tied to radicals.

Civil liberties experts told AP that a database for Muslims would be unconstitutional on several counts.

On Twitter, he said the idea didn’t originate with him.

“What the First Amendment does and what it should do is drive the government to use neutral criteria”, Hamilton said. What it can’t do is engage in one-religion bashing.

Democrat presidential front runner Hillary Clinton took a direct shot at her top rival from the Republican side condemning Donald Trumps call to require Muslims to register in a database, calling his idea shocking.

But then he suggested the database would focus more on refugees than all Muslim Americans. Trump did not say no to either idea. According to a Bloomberg poll, more than half of Americans said they favour ending the program to resettle Syrian refugees in the United States. “All I want to do is a level playing field”, Trump said.

“I’m not one who is real big on telling the enemy what we’re going to do and what we’re not going to do”, Carson said.