Brussels attacks become Topic A for presidential candidates

Republican and Democratic candidates for President had vastly different reactions to the bombings in Brussels. Donald Trump repeated his call to ban all Muslim immigrants, while Hillary Clinton called that counterproductive, and said Western Democracies need Muslim allies to defeat such terrorists.

Trump told FOX News Channel it was "just the beginning" and "will get worse and worse." He said Islamic State's claim of responsibility for the massacre justified his call to ban Muslims from entering the United States.

"I would close up our borders to people, until we figure out what's going on," Trump said.

Democrat Hillary Clinton said the U.S. needs help from all its people, especially now from Muslims.

"I want [American Muslims] to feel like they are part of our defense, not that they're being insulted and isolated and left out, which will be dangerous to us. That doesn't make sense," Clinton said. "[They] are the ones who should be calling the FBI and law enforcement to say, 'Something suspicious is going on!'"

Her Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, sounded a similar note, saying the U.S. needs Muslim allies in the Middle East to defeat Islamic State.

"We have to forge a coalition of the Muslim countries," said Sanders. "ISIS must be destroyed."

Like Trump, Republican Ted Cruz claimed Democrats have not been aggressive enough combatting terrorism. But he faulted what he said was Trump's plan to reduce America's ties to the NATO alliance based in Brussels.

"Donald Trump is wrong that America should withdraw from the world and abandon our allies.  Donald Trump is wrong that America should retreat from Europe, retreat from NATO," Cruz said.