REUTERS/Mike Segar
Donald Trump at a rally in Florida.
The Republican presidential nominee, the day after proclaiming himself "unshackled" from Republican Party officials, Trump spent the majority of a Florida campaign rally going full throttle against Clinton.
"We started off, we had no ISIS, and now, seven and a half years later, they're in, they think, 32 countries. And she's going to get rid of them?" Trump said.
He added: "They are hoping and praying that Hillary Clinton becomes president of the United States, because they'll take over not only that part of the world, they'll take over this country, they'll take over this part of the world. Believe me."
Wednesday's comments were the latest in a string of occasionally conflicting statements the Republican presidential nominee has offered about Clinton's role in the threat ISIS poses to the US. Earlier this year, Trump asserted that Clinton and Obama were the "co-founders of ISIS," a claim from which he refused to back down and later clarified was intended as sarcasm.
The real-estate magnate spent almost his entire speech focused on what he alleged were Clinton wrongdoings, ranging from largely unfounded allegations to criticisms of poured-over past Clinton scandals and revelations from the latest batch of WikiLeaks emails.
Trump criticized the FBI and the Department of Justice for their investigation into Clinton's private email server and ultimate decision that there was not enough evidence to prosecute Clinton, reiterating his provocative promise to appoint a special prosecutor specifically to "investigate the investigation" of Clinton's email practices.
The Republican presidential nominee has embraced more aggressively anti-Clinton rhetoric since revelations last week about lewd 2005 comments in which he boasted about kissing and groping women without permission.