Democratic Sen. Tim Kaine says that ISIS has the intent and capacity to strike the United States.
"The focus should be, I think there should be two focuses, protecting American lives. That's got to come first, and as we hear, they make a threat against D.C., they make a threat against New York," said the Virginia Democrat this week on the John Fredericks Show. "Some people make threats and have no capacity to carry them out, but when you watch what happens in Paris, you have to say, these folks certainly have the intent and they do have a capacity."
Kaine added the U.S. needs "to use military and non-military assets to protect American lives." Kaine also said that the ISIS threat was "born and bred" in the Middle East and regional nations need to stand up against the terrorist threat.
"We should help them and help them in targeted ways that we can, like airstrikes for example or some special forces, or some training," Kaine said. "We should be there with them."
Kaine said it would be a "recruiting bonanza" for ISIS if only the U.S. and the West takes them on.
"It's got to be the region against their own terrorist threat," he stated, adding that the focus of the U.S. should be on humanitarian help and supporting a regional force.