After a meeting with President Benigno Aquino of the Philippines, President Obama briefly addressed a mixed audience of US and Filipino journalists to deliver a sick burn on Republican presidential candidates who've been calling for a halt in entry of Syrian refugees into the United States.

"At first they were too scared of the press being too tough on them in the debates," said Obama, per the pool report. "Now they are scared of 3-year-old orphans. That doesn't seem so tough to me."

Obama also argued that he "cannot think of a more potent recruitment tool for ISIL than some of the rhetoric coming out of here in the course of this debate" than the idea of discriminating against Muslim refugees.

"ISIL seeks to exploit the idea that there's war between Islam and the West," Obama said. "And when you start seeing individuals in position of responsibility suggesting Christians are more worthy of protection than Muslims are in a war-torn land that feeds the ISIL narrative, it's counterproductive. And it needs to stop."

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