Story highlights
- Trump said of refugees, "I can look at their faces and say, 'Look you can't come here'"
- Trump struck a markedly different tone in addressing tough questions from a town hall audience
"I can look at their faces and say, 'Look, you can't come here,'" Trump said during a town hall after a man from Greenwich, Connecticut, asked the billionaire businessman -- who owns a home there -- whether he would be willing to personally bar Syrian children from resettling there.
"Their parents should always stay with them. But we don't know where their parents come from. We have no documentation whatsoever," Trump continued. "There's absolutely no way of saying where these people come from."
Trump went on, suggesting that Syrian refugees have pictures of ISIS flags "and worse" on their cell phones.
But beyond that, Trump struck a markedly different tone in addressing his questioner.
Trump didn't castigate the man, instead opting for empathy.
"I know what you're doing and I fully understand it. And we all have a heart," Trump said, adding again at the end of his response: "I understand where you're coming from, but there is a second view to that."
Trump also argued that the creation of safe zones in Syria to host refugees would be a better solution to address the refugee crisis spawned by the Syrian civil war.
"You look at it and you say we have enough problems," Trump said. "I have a bigger heart than anybody in this room. We take an area in Syria ... and we build a safe zone."
