Jeb Bush calls Donald Trump's Muslim surveillance comments 'abhorrent'

He also conceded that he doesn't know exactly what that that process entails, but still called for "added measures".

But public opinion is not with her. The same Bloomberg poll released this week showed that 53 percent of Americans and 69 percent of Republicans opposed accepting any Syrian refugees at all.

Republican presidential candidate Jeb Bush knocked GOP front-runner Donald Trump for suggesting that the government expand surveillance of American Muslims, calling the suggestion of tracking Muslims in a database "abhorrent".

"Turning away orphans, applying a religious test, discriminating against Muslims, slamming the door on every Syrian refugee - that is just not who we are", she said.

"They say 'we want to polarize the West and force Muslims in the West to choose between leaving their faith and (joining) us, '" he said.

Bush said they should be concerned about Syrians.

Ohio Republican Presidential candidate John Kasich, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, said, "We just have to have a system that can determine who these people are".

But on Friday he made a rare break with Trump on the billionaire's call to register Muslims, telling reporters, "I'm a big fan of Donald Trump's, but I'm not a fan of government registries of American citizens".

One thing he was sure of was the cause of the crisis.

His national security remarks come just one day after outlining his proposals at the Citadel in Charleston, S.C. for additional force and ground troops in the Middle East.

And Sen. Marco Rubio (Florida) said the attacks were part of a "clash of civilizations" - essentially casting the Paris attackers as products of Muslim society rather than a radical group apart from it. Retired neurosurgeon Ben Carson, who has emerged as Trump's strongest challenger at the top of the polls, compared Syrian refugees - the bulk of which are Muslim - to "rabid dogs".

He called ISIS terrorists barbarians who must be destroyed and said they must not be allowed to train, recruit, organize and plan more attacks. It was not clear whether Carson realized that Muslims traditionally consider dogs to be unclean and refrain from contact with them.

"We have two competing sets of pessimism in this country in the political realm", Bush said.

"The anti-Muslim situation right now is so much hotter, in fact, than it was after 9/11 that it's a little bit astounding", said Heidie Beidrich, director of the Southern Poverty Law Center's Intelligence Project, which studies and reports on extremist groups. That's the moral thing to do and accepting refugees is what America has always done and I think it is improper to turn our back on those people. "I'll do it on the stage in the debate if need be, and I'll certainly do it against Hillary Clinton".

Yet the grassroots wing of the party critical to winning the nomination has also largely rejected Bush's embrace of his brother President George W. Bush's "compassionate conservatism".

Earlier this week, Bush seemed closer to fellow Republican candidate Sen.

While Bush's legacy is seen by many as the 2003 invasion of Iraq and what it brought, the military engagement wan't focused on Islam.

It has become a signature attack line of the 2016 presidential campaign, and a label that has stuck as one that describes former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush (R): "low energy". The only thing that I'm saying is for right now until we get a handle on where we are we need to stop.

Bob's asking "Why should we take the risk?"