(CNSNews.com) - Republican Donald Trump says his recent call to temporarily ban all Muslim foreigners from coming into the United States has "opened up a very big discussion that needed to be opened up."
"We're not talking about religion. We're talking about security," Trump said at the Dec. 15 debate hosted by CNN.
In his opening statement, Trump said he began his campaign with a "total focus" on "building up our military, building up our strength, building up our borders."
But things changed a month ago, when "radical Islamic terrorism" intruded, first with the attack in Paris, then with the attack in San Bernardino.
"People like what I say. People respect what I say," Trump insisted. "And we've opened up a very big discussion that needed to be opened up."
Host Wolf Blitzer, in his first question to Trump, asked him about his call to "temporarily ban non-American Muslims from coming to the United States; ban refugees fleeing ISIS from coming here; deport 11 million people; and wall off America's southern border. Is the best way to make America great again, to isolate it from much of the rest of the world?"
"We are not talking about isolation," Trump responded. "We're talking about security. We're not talking about religion. We're talking about security. Our country is out of control. People are pouring across the southern border. I will build a wall. It will be a great wall. People will not come in unless they come in legally. Drugs will not pour through that wall."
Trump, in a general reference to "migration," also questioned "tens of thousands of people having cell phones with ISIS flags on them? I don't think so, Wolf. They're not coming to this country. And if I'm president and if Obama has brought some to this country, they are leaving. They're going. They're gone."
Trump apparently was referring to reports that hundreds of refugees in Norway were found to have images of ISIS flags on their cell phones, as well as images of severed heads and hands.
'Not a serious proposal'
Host Wolf Blitzer then turned to Jeb Bush, asking him why he called Trump "unhinged" for proposing a ban on non-American Muslims entering the United States.
"Well, first of all, we need to destroy ISIS in the caliphate," Bush responded. "That's -- that should be our objective. The refugee issue will be solved if we destroy ISIS there, which means we need to have a no-fly zone, safe zones there for refugees and to build a military force.
"We need to embed our forces -- our troops inside the Iraqi military. We need to arm directly the Kurds. And all of that has to be done in concert with the Arab nations. And if we're going to ban all Muslims, how are we going to get them to be part of a coalition to destroy ISIS?
"The Kurds are the greatest fighting force and our strongest allies. They're Muslim. Look, this is not a serious proposal. In fact, it will push the Muslim world, the Arab world away from us at a time when we need to reengage with them to be able to create a strategy to destroy ISIS."
Bush said Trump is "great at the one-liners, but he's a chaos candidate, and he'd be a chaos president."
Trump, given time for rebuttal, said, "Jeb doesn't really believe I'm unhinged. He said that very simply because he has failed in this campaign. It's been a total disaster. Nobody cares. And frankly, I'm the most solid person up here. I built a tremendous company and all I want to do is make America great again.
"I don't want our country to be taken away from us, and that's what's happening. The policies that we've suffered under other presidents have been a disaster for our country. We want to make America great again. And Jeb, in all fairness, he doesn't believe that."
It was then Bush's turn to rebut: "This is the problem," Bush said. "Banning all Muslims will make it harder for us to do exactly what we need to do, which is to destroy ISIS. We need a strategy. We need to get the lawyers off the back of the warfighters. Right now under President Obama, we've created this -- this standard that is so high that it's impossible to be successful in fighting ISIS.
"We need to engage with the Arab world to make this happen. It is not a serious proposal to say that -- to the people that you're asking for their support that they can't even come to the country to even engage in a dialogue with us. That's not a serious proposal. We need a serious leader to deal with this."
There was plenty of time remaining in the debate for Trump and Bush to needle each other, which they continued to do in later exchanges:
"You're never going to be president of the United States by insulting your way to the presidency," Bush told Trump later on.
"Well, let's see. I'm at 42, and you're at 3. So, so far, I'm doing better," Trump shot back.
"Doesn't matter, doesn't matter," Bush responded.
"So far, I'm doing better. You know, you started off over here, Jeb (a reference to center stage). You're moving over further and further. Pretty soon you're going to be off the end--"
"This doesn't do a thing to solve the problems," Carly Fiorina cut in.
