Candidates Accuse Each Other of Fueling Terrorism (Polls & Video)

Donald Trump seized on the weekend attacks in New York, New Jersey, and Minnesota to promote his anti-immigration proposals as a national security agenda and return his campaign to the familiar terrain of terrorism a week before the first presidential debate.

“Immigration security is national security,” Trump said during a rally in Fort Myers, Fla., on Monday.

The GOP nominee believes the politics surrounding terrorism and insecurity play beyond his core base and work in his favor, just 50 days out from the election. Trump added the weekend blasts to a years-long terrorism timeline he recites at rallies. “One brutal attack after another,” he said in Florida.

With the focus of the campaign shifting in the wake of the attacks, and coinciding with foreign leaders arriving in New York City for the United Nations General Assembly meeting, Hillary Clinton moved to stake her claim on the debate, hoping to draw a sharp contrast between herself and Trump on experience and temperament in a precarious time.

Trump referred to Clinton Monday as “weak and ineffective” when she served as secretary of state and accused her and President Obama of backing policies that gave rise to ISIS, while Clinton accused her opponent of “irresponsible, reckless rhetoric.”

Both candidates accused one another of being a boon to terrorists, if elected. “They want her so badly,” Trump said of ISIS and Clinton. The Democratic nominee said Trump’s rhetoric has drawn the attention of ISIS recruiters “looking to make this into a war against Islam rather than a war against jihadists, violent terrorists …” she said, noting her discussions 10 days ago with a group of national security experts from both parties.