Republicans Think Trump Is The Most Capable Of Handling Terrorism

11.17.2015 | Surge Wire |

Americans think presidential candidates Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have what it takes to keep the United States free and clear of terrorism.

A new Reuters/Ipsos poll conducted after the Paris attacks last Friday shows that 20 percent of respondents opted for GOP presidential candidate Donald Trump as the candidate of their choice to properly address terrorism, Reuters reports.

An equal number of respondents chose Hillary Clinton, as well, resulting in a firm tie. This held true when looking at voters from their respective parties. A total of 52 percent of Democrats chose Clinton, and 33 percent of Republicans chose Trump, with GOP Sen. [crscore]Marco Rubio[/crscore] following quite a ways behind at only 17 percent.

Candidates Ben Carson and Jeb Bush both received 9 percent.

Since the Paris attacks, Donald Trump has floated the idea of closing radical mosques in the United States. On Saturday at a campaign rally, Trump added that the situation could have been different if victims were armed.

“You can say what you want, but if they had guns — if our people had guns, if they were allowed to carry — it would have been a much, much different situation,” Trump said, according to The Washington Post.

Trump’s remarks flipped Republicans who were previously unsure about the real estate billionaire. Just 10 percent dropped their rating of his abilities after the Paris attacks, while a full 36 percent of Republicans rated their confidence in his abilities as higher.

Candidates Carly Fiorina and Rand Paul took a hit, with 16 percent dropping confidence in the former and 19 percent in the latter.

The survey was conducted from Nov. 16-17 and has a credibility interval of 3.4 percentage points.

Follow Jonah Bennett on Twitter

Content created by The Daily Caller News Foundation is available without charge to any eligible news publisher that can provide a large audience. For licensing opportunities of our original content, please contact licensing@dailycallernewsfoundation.org.