Trump: Profiling might be necessary to combat terrorism

REUTERS/Eric Thayer

Donald Trump speaks at Youngstown State University in Youngstown, Ohio August 15, 2016.

Donald Trump suggested on Monday that profiling may be necessary to fight terrorist threats in the United States.

In an interview with Fox News's Bill O'Reilly, the Republican presidential candidate criticized President Obama and Hillary Clinton's response to domestic terrorism and stressed that the nation's anti-terrorism efforts need to be expanded.

"Our local police, they know who a lot of these people are," Trump said on The O'Reilly Factor on Monday. "They are afraid to do anything about it, because they don't want to be accused of profiling. And they don't want to be accused of all sorts of things."

"Do we really have a choice? We're trying to be so politically correct in our country," he added.

Trump offered few details about how tactics for profiling suspected terrorists would be employed without violating the rights of individuals, but did point to Israel's use of profiling to prevent attacks.

"Well, we have no choice. Look, Israel does it and Israel does it very successfully,"Trump said. "They don't like to do it. I don't like to do it, but we have to be - you have a woman who is 87 years old in a wheelchair who is from Sweden and we have to look at her if we're going to look at somebody else."

Trump's remarks come after police arrested Ahmad Khan Rahami Monday in connection with bombings in New York City and New Jersey over the weekend.

The Republican candidate speculated that the counterterrorism officials failed to put Rahami on terror watch list to avoid legal issues.

"They probably saw he was a litigious guy and they don't want to get sued so they left him alone," he said.