He was very careful not to answer the question.
When before he was unequivocal - ban Muslims from entering. Obviously Trump is going into campaign mode and one has to wonder what other promise he'll walk back next.
He did answer the question. See comment 1.
He gave a clear, unequivocal answer:
And he went on: “Look at what’s happening. It’s terrible what they have done to some of these countries … They are destroying Europe. I’m not going to let that happen to the United States.”
Trump then derided President Obama for his refusal to even use the phrase “radical Islamic terrorism,” and said under his watch – under a Trump presidency – “common sense” would prevail.
“We have to be careful,” Trump said. “We’re allowing thousands of people to come into our country, thousands and thousands of people being placed all over the country that frankly nobody knows who they are. They don’t have documentation in many cases. In most cases. We don’t know what we’re doing. Let’s see what happens. This could be a very serious problem for the future.”
That was a very clear answer to the question.
He didn’t care if it hurt him. He would do what would keep the U. S. Citizens safe.
“He was very careful not to answer the question.”
He answered it more than once. All the pronouns that he used had as their antecedents — will you still ban Muslims?
Moving from”ban” to “slow” is not exactly doubling down.
Maybe “ban” is was just a nuanced metaphor like Trump supporters are already saying “build a wall” was...