Sen. Tim Kaine (D., Va.) claimed at Tuesday's debate that the terrorist threat around the world has decreased, despite recent dire warnings about what the world faces from violent extremists from Obama administration members.
"Do you think the world today is a safer or more dangerous place than it was eight years ago? Has the terrorist threat increased or decreased?" moderator Elaine Quijano asked.
"The terrorist threat has decreased in some ways, because bin Laden is dead," Kaine said. "The terrorist threat has decreased in some ways because an Iranian nuclear weapons program has been stopped. The terrorist threat to United States troops has been decreased in some ways because there's not 175,000 in a dangerous part of the world. There's only 15,000. But there are other parts of the world that are challenging.
"Let me tell you this, to beat terrorism, there's only one candidate who can do it, and it's Hillary Clinton. Remember Hillary Clinton was the senator from New York on 9/11. She was there at the World Trade Center when they were still searching for victims and survivors. That seared on to her the need to beat terrorism, and she's got a plan to do it."
Recently, FBI Director James Comey warned of a coming "diaspora" of radical Islamic terror, even if or when the Islamic State terrorist organization is eliminated. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper also painted a chilling picture of the threats facing the globe earlier this year.
President Obama's former Pentagon chief Robert Gates has said President Obama and his advisers had underestimated ISIS. ISIS has inspired homegrown attacks on the U.S. and committed atrocities across the Middle East and beyond, including the Paris terror attack in 2015 that killed more than 130 people.