Protesting Trump understandable, but not really helpful right now

A few examples:

From Politico

"I was watching the other day. And I was watching Ted talk. And he said, 'We will build a wall.' The first time I've ever heard him say it," (Donald) Trump said in a TV interview on Sunday. "And my wife, who was sitting next to me, said, 'Oh, look. He's copying what you've been saying for a long period of time.'

"Every time somebody says we want a wall, remember who said it first," Trump groused at an event in New Hampshire on Tuesday evening. "Politicians do not give credit."

As Cruz has talked more often about building a barrier along the United States' southern border with Mexico, so too has Trump stepped up his complaints, mentioning the Texas senator's alleged intellectual theft every day so far this week.

But Cruz aides counter that their candidate broached the idea of a border fence long before Trump seized the agenda on immigration by vowing to deport 11 million undocumented migrants and promising to build a "big, beautiful wall" to keep them out forever.

Donald Trump wants to close the borders as Sen. Ted Cruz is calling for law enforcement to patrol Muslim neighborhoods following Tuesday’s deadly terror attacks in Brussels.

For his part, Cruz said the U.S.needs to “immediately halt the flow of refugees from countries with a significant al Qaeda or ISIS presence.”

“We need to empower law enforcement to patrol and secure Muslim neighborhoods before they become radicalized. We need to secure the southern border to prevent terrorist infiltration. And we need to execute a coherent campaign to utterly destroy ISIS,” Cruz said in a statement.

The Republican presidential hopeful said Obama has not been tough enough on ISIS.

“It is long past time that we had a president who will acknowledge this evil, will call it by its name and utilize the full force and fury of the United States to defeat radical Islamic terrorism to defeat ISIS,” the Texas senator said.

Ted Cruz took the stage Monday at a massive pro-Israel gathering and immediately tore into rival Donald Trump’s Israel-backing bona fides.

“Let me say at the outset,” the Texassenator said as he took the stage at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual gathering, “Perhaps to the surprise of the previous speaker, Palestine has not existed since 1948.”

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That was a jab at Trump, who spoke right before Cruz and several times referred to the Palestinian territories, some of which are under Israeli control, as “Palestine” — a definite faux pas in some pro-Israel circles.

Cruz, who is seeking to emerge as the Republican Party’s anti-Trump standard bearer, sprinkled several other swipes at Trump throughout his address to AIPAC, a high-profile Washingtonconference that drew thousands of people and every presidential candidate except for Bernie Sanders.

Donald Trump has issued a short response to pro-life Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz. Trump says Cruz’s recent television ad saying Trump “can’t be trusted” on abortion issues is off base. Trump says he is pro-life and has been for a long time.

Cruz is out this week with a new campaign commercial slamming businessman Donald Trump, who is running as a pro-life candidate, on abortion. With Planned Parenthood funding and a future Supreme Court nomination battle in mind, Cruz says voters “can’t trust” Trump on those key pro-life issues.

Donald Trump said Tuesday that authorities interrogating Paris terror suspect Salah Abdeslam should "do whatever they have to do" to get information in light of the deadly terrorist attacks in Belgium.

Trump said on NBC's "TODAY" if he were elected president he would make sure the United States has "strong borders," and said people looking to come into the country would need "absolute perfect documentation."

He and other presidential candidates reacted to the deadly explosions that rocked the main Brusselsairport and the metro system near European Union buildings.

Brusselswas on lockdown, with Tuesday's blasts coming four days after the arrest of Abdeslam. 

Abdeslam should be subjected to harsh interrogation techniques, Trump told NBC. Belgian authorities should be able to "do whatever they have to do" to get information from the suspect, he continued, adding waterboarding "would be fine."

"If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than waterboarding," he continued. "You have to get the information from these people. And we have to be smart. And we have to be tough. We can't be soft and weak."

Dismissing critics who say harsh interrogations don't yield reliable information, Trump said: "I am in the camp where you have to get the information, and you have to get it rapidly."

Trump made his first remarks on the Brussels terror attacks on Twitter.

GOP rival Ohio Gov. John Kasich tweeted a statement on the Brussels attacks.

"We must ... redouble our efforts with our allies to identify, root out and destroy the perpetrators of such acts of evil," the Kasich statement read, in part. "We must strengthen our alliances as our way of life and the international system that has been built on our common values since the end of the Second World War comes under challenge."

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz released a statement on his Facebook page.

It read, in part: "Make no mistake — these terror attacks are no isolated incidents. They are just the latest in a string of coordinated attacks by radical Islamic terrorists perpetrated by those who are waging war against all who do not accept their extreme strain of Islam."

"When I am sworn in as president," the Cruz statement continued, "we will name our enemy — radical Islamic terrorism. And we will defeat it."

Cruz later criticized Trump for saying to The Washington Post that he favors a light footprint in the world.

"Donald Trump is wrong that America should withdraw from the world and abandon our allies," Cruz told reporters Tuesday.

The Texas senator also called for a halt to the entrance of Syrian refugees into U.S. until a screening review can be conducted.

Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton said in a statement Tuesday: "Terrorists have once again struck at the heart of Europe, but their campaign of hate and fear will not succeed."

The statement also read, in part: "Today's attacks will only strengthen our resolve to stand together as allies and defeat terrorism and radical jihadism around the world."