During a speech on counterterrorism at Stanford University Wednesday, Hillary Clinton said the U.S. needs every American community invested in the fight against terrorism.
Further, she stressed that demonizing Muslims is wrong.
"It's understandable that Americans here at home are worried. The threat we face from terrorism is real, urgent and it knows no boundaries," she said. "ISIS is attempting a genocide of religious and ethnic minorities ... We need to rely on what actually works, not bluster that alienates our partners."
Clinton's appearance at the Bechtel Conference Center at Encina Hall on the Stanford University campus comes in the wake of Islamic State-claimed bombings in Belgium that killed at least 31 people and injured 270 at an airport and transit station in and near Brussels. She was initially expected to be in the Bay Area for fundraisers.
Clinton urged listeners to stand in solidarity with Europe in order to defeat the Islamic State group.
"We will defeat ISIS," Clinton said. "We need every American community invested in this fight."
She added that the U.S. needs to be "smart and vigilant" about how it processes people into the country.
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"Our enemies are constantly adapting, so we have to do the same," Clinton told the group of students and professors. "The stakes could not be higher."
Clinton isn't the only presidential candidate weighing in on the deadly Belgian bombings. Bernie Sanders and Republican Gov. John Kasich saying they both want to destroy ISIS.
Republican hopeful Donald Trump repeated his controversial theme to Fox News, saying, "I would close up our borders to people until we figure out what's going on."
The business mogul also noted: "Water boarding would be fine. If they could expand the laws, I would do a lot more than water boarding. You have to get the information from these people."
Meanwhile, Trump's fellow GOP candidate Ted Cruz said he wants police to start patrolling Muslim communities. "Where there is an expanding presence of radical Islamic terrorism, we need law enforcement resources directed there," he said.
Clinton, however, said that what Trump and Cruz are proposing is wrong and "dangerous."
"Walls will not protect us from this threat. We cannot contain ISIS — we must defeat ISIS," she said during her speech Wednesday. "If Mr. Trump gets his way, it will be like Christmas in the Kremlin. It will make America less safe."
Former Secretary of State George Shultz was in the audience Wednesday. He made a brief comment after the speech, supporting Clinton's strategy.
Former U.S. Ambassador to Russia and Stanford's political science professor Mike McFaul told NBC Bay Area that Clinton's speech was appropriate and timely.
"One has to have a smart strategy, a patient strategy to achieve our objectives," he said. "Defeating terrorism requires that king of strategy."
