Trump: ‘I Want a Database for the Refugees’

STEPHANOPOULOS: You did stir up a controversy with those comments over the database. Let’s try to clear that up.

Are you unequivocally now ruling out a database on all Muslims?

TRUMP: No, not at all. I want a database for the refugees that — if they come into the country. We have no idea who these people are. When the Syrian refugees are going to start pouring into this country, we don’t know if they’re ISIS, we don’t know if it’s a Trojan horse.

And I definitely want a database and other checks and balances. We want to go with watchlists. We want to go with databases.

And we have no choice. We have no idea who’s being sent in here. This could be the — it’s probably not, but it could be the great Trojan horse of all time, where they come in.

When I look at those migration — when I look at the migration and the lines and I see all strong, very powerful looking men, they’re men and I see very few women, I see very few children, there’s something strange going on.

And if you look at what’s happened in Europe, a lot of bad things are happening in Europe. Just ask the folks that live in Germany, George. A lot of bad things are happening. So —

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: But the statistics do show —

TRUMP: We want to be smart.

We want to — hey, George, we want to be vigilant. We have to be vigilant and we have to call — is radical — you know, we have to just say it. It’s radical Islamic terrorism, and that’s what it is. And we have a president that won’t even issue the term.

But when these Syrians come in, or wherever they are, because we’re not even sure that they’re coming in from Syria, if they’re going to come in, we have to be very, very vigilant. And a database would be fine for them and a watchlist is fine. We have to watch and see what we’re doing.

They should not come in, by the way. They should not be allowed to come in.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Just for the record, though, the statistics do show the majority of the refugees coming in are women and children.