TAMRON HALL (HOST): How can 'call it whatever you want to call it' be a specific policy or strategy, and has he changed on this idea?

BARRY BENNETT: Certainly there's been some migration. I'm not going to deny that.

HALL: But he says no, specifically to her pointed question, “So, are you changing?” He said “no.”

BENNETT: I don't think it's necessarily a wholesale change. I do think it's a refinement, though. I mean, we are now talking about -- we all understand the world is not safe enough to let anybody who wants to come here without some vetting. And that's what we need to do.

HALL: And those who are coming in are being vetted. Do you believe that that's happening now?

BENNETT: No, there isn't because -- people from Syria -- there's no database. There is no database that exists anywhere that tells us who are the good people and the bad people.

HALL: Do you know how many people have been turned away compared to those let into this country?

BENNETT: I understand, and I'm all for that.

HALL: So there is vetting in place?

BENNETT: The FBI Director says there's not serious enough vetting in place. I mean, that's the Obama administration's FBI Director. Until we can figure out exactly how to do this, and so far we haven't been able to figure it out. And this goes beyond Obama. This goes back to Bush as well. The vetting process for our immigration policies is kind of a joke. We ask you some questions, we don't even look at your social media feeds, and we let people into the country.

[...]

HALL: So what's the Trump administration's plan? At this point we've gone through a lot of rhetoric. You know that. Here you are at the big stage.

BENNETT: It's the convention. This is rhetoric central.

HALL: It certainly has been that, but when will we then hear the specifics on the Trump plan?

BENNETT: Well, I mean, what he said so far is that if you -- if you live in a country that harbors terrorism, either willingly or unwillingly, we can't let you immigrate into this country until we can put together a system that says you're safe to let in the country. Now, you know, there's all kind -- we don't know what the system is right because --

HALL: You saw the question in my eyes. What then is that system? Reading social media pages?

BENNETT: This is why we have to get the best and brightest in a room together to figure out this system, and I don't understand why it hasn't been done so far, and Syria's a great example. There is no database --

HALL: But by the facts, there's not been an attack in this country by someone who was an immigrant from Syria. The San Bernardino attacker who lived in this country was from here. What we saw with the Pulse nightclub. So this -- 

BENNETT: You don't understand what radicalizes these people. That's the scary part. We know very little about this process. 

HALL: Well, that's potentially an unanswerable question.

[...]

HALL: What then would be the Trump plan to deal with what we have seen in real-time and real life? 

BENNETT: Temporary halt on immigration until we can figure out a process. 

HALL: And that would have stopped San Bernardino and Orlando? 

BENNETT: No. I didn't say that. But, it could stop the next San Bernardino. It could stop the next Cleveland. It could stop the next Washington, D.C., or New York. But right now we're not doing anything. And that's not acceptable. 

HALL: But the notion that we're not doing anything -- that the administration or the State Department -- is simply not true. There is an extensive vetting process in place. 

BENNETT: He said there is no way to vet these people. 

HALL: There is a vetting process in place. You and I both know that.

Previously:

MSNBC's Mike Barnicle: Trump's Syrian Refugee Claims “Either Ignorance, Cynicism, Or Lying, Or A Blend Of The Three” 

CNN National Security Analyst: Trump’s Muslim Profiling Idea Is “Unconstitutional And Would Be Ineffective”

United Nations Refugee Chief Condemns Trump-Style Rhetoric As Best Propaganda For ISIS