Face in the News: Donald Trump and Chris Christie square off on tracking and profiling Muslims; Bernie Sanders discusses ISIS and gun control

WASHINGTON (CBS News) - In the wake of the San Bernardino attack, this week's broadcast of "Face the Nation" focused on terrorism and gun control. We spoke with the current 2016 Republican presidential frontrunner, Donald Trump, about his support for profiling and tracking Muslims and how he would prevent domestic terrorist attacks by homegrown extremists. We also spoke to Republican candidate, and New Jersey governor, Chris Christie about his approach to combat terrorism. On the Democratic side we spoke with Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) about his counter-ISIS strategy and gun control legislation.

At the top of Sunday's broadcast, Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, asserted that profiling and tracking Muslims in the United States could have prevented last week's San Bernardino attacks. The businessman said political correctness is stopping people from reporting suspicious behavior.

"People are dead. A lot of people are dead right now. So, everybody wants to be politically correct. And that's part of the problem that we have with our country." Trump said.

Host of "Face the Nation," John Dickerson, asked the real estate mogul where he stands on Muslims being tracked in this country and Trump responded saying, "you have people that have to be tracked. If they're Muslims, they're Muslims. But you have people that have to be tracked."

Trump also called on the United States to go after the families of terrorists. Mentioning the families of the terrorists involved in the 9/11 attacks, Trump stated, "Those wives knew exactly what was going to happen. And those wives went home to watch their husbands knock down the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and wherever the third plane was going," he said adding, "I would certainly go after the wives who absolutely knew what was happening."

Donald Trump said President Obama's refusal to blame radical Islamic terrorism is a problem but added that, "the problem will get solved when he gets the hell out."

Fellow Republican candidate and New Jersey governor, Chris Christie, strongly disagreed with the Republican frontrunner on the issue of tracking and profiling Muslims.

"Well, listen, all I would say is that this is the difference between having the experience and understanding how you do this, and not having any experience." The New Jersey governor said adding, "we don't need to be profiling in order to be able to get the job done here. Increased surveillance, creating relationships with mosques in the Muslim American community across the country, we did that after 9/11 and prevented attacks in New Jersey and all across the country."

Christie continued to jab at his Republican rival saying, "what you need is a president who has had the experience and the know-how to do this, and not someone who is just going to talk off the top of their head."

John Dickerson asked the governor if insufficient gun laws were to blame to which Christie responded, "this is the typical liberal approach to things." Christie attacked the president, Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton as well as a few of his fellow Republican candidates saying, "The president has said it. No crisis is worth wasting. And they wanted to try to turn this awful tragedy into an excuse to have greater gun control, when what we really need is greater intelligence, which the president has taken away from this country, with the complicity of Senator Cruz and Senator Paul."

Our interviews with the two Republican candidates made headlines in USA Today, AP, Bloomberg, The Wall Street Journal, Politico, The NY Post, The New York Daily News, Business Insider, The Daily Mail, The New York Times, CNN, The Washington Examiner, Mediaite, MSNBC, The Washington Post, NJ.com, Asbury Park Press and The Hill.

We also spoke with Democratic presidential candidate, Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) during the broadcast as he called for an aggressive effort in combatting ISIS, but opposed putting American troops on the ground.

"We have got to be tough, but we have got to be smart. And that means an international coalition with Muslim troops on the ground supported by Western democracies with airpower and other military efforts." The Vermont Senator said.

During the Interview, Sanders was asked about gun control. When Dickerson asked if increased gun-control could be a solution to attacks like San Bernardino, the Vermont Senator responded, "I don't think anybody believes it's a magic formula. Clearly, though, there is an obvious commonsense consensus, John, in this country that guns should not be falling into the hands of people who should not be having them."

Sanders added to his statement and called for a "revolution in mental health," as another part of the solution saying, "That revolution is about making sure that the many thousands of people who are walking the streets of America today who are suicidal or homicidal get the help they need, and they get it now, not two months from now."

Our conversation with Sen. Bernie Sanders was covered by The LA Times, Bloomberg, The Hill, MSNBCand The Washington Times.