WASHINGTON �� There is no evidence that President Donald Trump's travel ban, struck down in the courts and awaiting Supreme Court review, would make the U.S. safer from the kinds of attacks carried out in London Saturday, his predecessor's national security adviser said Sunday.
"There's a very real risk that by stigmatizing and isolating Muslims from particular countries, and Muslims in general, that we alienate the very communities here in the United States whose cooperation we most need to detect and prevent these homegrown extremists from being able to carry out attacks,'' Susan Rice said on ABC's "This Week.'' Trump responded quickly to Saturday night's terrorist attack in London with a Twitter post arguing for U.S. courts to reinstate his executive order on travel to the U.S. by people from six predominantly Muslim countries.
"We need to be smart, vigilant and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the Travel Ban as an extra level of safety,'' Trump said.
Rice said the U.S. and other countries need to remain focused on recognizing and stopping homegrown terrorists, and that Trump's order doesn't help. "That is, I believe, one of the major reasons why the courts thus far have been very skeptical of the travel ban,'' Rice said.
The White House Thursday asked the Supreme Court to reinstate the ban, which the administration has described as an effort to protect the country from terrorists. There has been a string of court rulings against the measure since it was introduced in January, and then amended in March.
Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Mo, a member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, said Trump does "have the right to put in place extreme vetting," whether the travel ban moves ahead or not.
"The terror threat is real," Blunt said on "Fox News Sunday."
Sen. Mark Warner, Va., of Virginia said that "in many ways the Muslim-American community is better integrated into our society" than in Europe, which is the "secret sauce" that helps stops attacks like those in Europe.
"That's why it troubles me so much to see the type of tweets the president has put out in the last 12 hours or so," Warner, the Intelligence Committee's top Democrat, said on CNN.
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(Ros Krasny contributed to this report. Niquette reported from Columbus, Ohio.)
