Scott Walker: If I can handle 100,000 protesters, I can defeat ISIS

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker (R), a leading candidate for the president in 2016, just implied that massive protests against his administration show he has the mental strength necessary to take on the Islamic State group (also known as ISIS).

While taking questions following his Thursday speech at the annual Conservative Political Action Conference, Walker was asked how he would defeat the Islamic State jihadists in the Middle East. Walker responded by pointing to his track record of surviving raucous protests and tough elections.

"We need a leader with that kind of confidence. If I can take on 100,000 protesters, I can do the same across the world," he declared.

Walker said if he were president, he would send a clear message to terrorists that the US will do everything in its power to halt their violence.

"I want a commander in chief who will do everything in their power to ensure that the threat from radical Islamic terrorists [does] not wash up on American soil," he said. "We will have someone who leads and ultimately will send a message that not only that we will protect American soil, but, 'Do not take this upon freedom-loving people anywhere else in the world.'"

Walker also said he predicted the rise of the Islamic State long before they were seizing wide swaths of territory in Iraq and Syria at the start of last year.

"As a governor, I actually get a threat assessment from the FBI," he said. "Without divulging confidential information, I would tell you for years I've been concerned about that threat not just abroad but on American soil."

Walker is leading in the national 2016 polls. He has been at least partially buoyed by his high-profile battles with national labor unions that led massive protests against him and unsuccessful efforts to recall him in 2012 and block his re-election in 2014.