Las Vegas: Republican presidential hopefuls put Islamic State (IS) jihadists in their crosshairs on Tuesday as they debated how to keep America safe, with Jeb Bush and others attacking Donald Trump for demanding a ban on Muslims entering the country.
Just weeks after deadly attacks in Paris and San Bernardino, California, Republicans vying for their party’s nomination in the 2016 race for the White House were suddenly confronted with the specter of terrorism on the US soil and the steps they would take to defeat the IS entrenched in Iraq and Syria.
But amid pronouncements that US freedoms are under attack, several of Mr Trump’s rivals aimed criticism at the billionaire real estate mogul during the debate — the Republicans’ fifth and their last in 2015 — over his incendiary anti-Muslim remarks.
“We can’t disassociate ourselves from peace-loving Muslims. If we expect to do this on our own, we will fail,” said Mr Bush, the former Florida governor who came out swinging to try to revitalise his ailing campaign. “Donald is great at the one-liners,” Mr Bush added, “but he’s a chaos candidate and he’d be a chaos president.”
Trump has only gained in popularity since making his abrasive anti-Muslim comments, even as rivals accused him of playing into jihadist hands.
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