France Terror Attack Highlights Foreign Affairs Differences in Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump took two very different tones in response to the terror attack in France, with Clinton calling for greater intelligence gathering to fight terror groups, while Trump said he would seek a formal declaration of war against ISIS.

The responses to the terror attack that left scores dead on Thursday in Nice, France by the presumptive presidential candidates again underscores their contrasting approaches to foreign affairs, with Clinton's preference for intelligence gathering and diplomacy compared to Trump's more hawkish approach to terrorism.

The two were responding to the Bastille Day attack in Nice, where a truck loaded with bombs and other munitions plowed through a crowd that was celebrating the annual French holiday.

On Thursday night, Trump was asked by Bill O'Reilly of Fox News if he would seek a declaration of war from Congress against ISIS.

"I would, I would. This is war," Trump answered. "If you look at it, this is war coming from all different parts."

"You know, in the old days, we would have uniforms, you knew what you were fighting. We are allowing people into our country who we have no idea where they are, where they're from, who they are, they have no paperwork, they have no documentation, in many cases," Trump said.

Trump said he would use NATO forces to wage war on terrorist groups, adding, "I’ve been saying it: We should use NATO for a purpose."

Clinton, when asked to respond to Trump's comments on CNN, said it was "clear" that the U.S. was already at war with terrorist organizations, but noted that it "was a very different kind of war" that required better intelligence gathering, not more military action.

"They would love to draw the United States into a ground war in Syria," Clinton said. "I would be very focused on the intelligence surge. I would be very focused on working with our partners and allies and intensify our efforts against the ideologues that peddle radical jihadism online."

"We're at war against radical jihadists who use Islam to recruit and radicalize others in order to pursue their evil agenda," added Clinton.

When asked about Trump's claim that President Obama's unwillingness to use the term "radical Islam," Clinton responded: "It's not so important what we call these people as what we do about them, and I think back to our success in getting bin Laden, it was important that we built the case, we got the information and the president ordered the raid."

Clinton also dismissed Trump's criticism of the administration's decision to allow 10,000 Syrian refugees to enter the U.S. because of the potential of terrorists entering the country by posing as refugees.

"I would not short-circuit the vetting process," Clinton said. "If we are talking about women, children, orphans who are fleeing horrific violence, that's a different category than young men or people who have some record that could be ferreted out as some concern."

[Photo credit: Gage Skidmore via Flickr Commons]