Clinton says Trump gives 'aid, comfort' to ISIS recruiters

The explosion injured 29 people.

It's also unclear whether the limited human toll of the weekend's attacks will dilute their impact on an election still 49 days away - in an election season in which the narrative often seems to shift by the hour.

But Clinton later made a mistake by disputing Trump's claim that terror attacks in the USA are on a rise.

At an airfield hangar draped with United States flags, Clinton sought to show she has the temperament, smarts and experience needed to be the commander-in-chief.

Even if it proves fleeting, the mortifying resemblance to 2000, provides a backdrop for Clinton's increasingly warm and concerted courtship of young voters and of an increasing sense of alarm among Trump foes that millennials, through apathy or self-satisfied third-party voting, could tip the presidency into his hands. The election is not a "reality TV show", she said in a swipe at Republican nominee Donald Trump.

Bloomberg Politics reporter Jennifer Epstein asked Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton during a press conference Monday whether she believed the previous weekend's terrorist attacks in NY and Jersey were a plot- possibly carried out by the Russians- to get her Republican opponent Donald Trump more votes.

"We all got Rick-rolled", said CNN's Jake Tapper, a reference to the Internet prank of replacing an expected link with a video of singer Rick Astley's 1987 hit, "Never Gonna Give You Up".

Over the past day, both Clinton and Trump also accused ISIS of rooting for the other side to win the election, with Clinton insisting her administration would be "going after the bad guys" and not the entire Muslim faith. This is not a reality TV show. We're letting people in by the thousands and tens of thousands.

Trump said his call for tougher immigration control "isn't just something that I developed overnight" because of the latest attacks.

Asked if he was saying there would be more attacks, he replied, "Yeah, because we've been weak".

At a campaign rally that same night, Trump told attendees that there had been a "bombing" in NY, hours before law enforcement announced the cause of the explosion.

The political repercussions of the attacks are hard to predict.

Clinton urged caution and said it was important not to draw conclusions until there was more information.

But the latest attacks come a week before the first presidential debate at Hofstra University in NY. He may have guessed right, but that would be a reckless way to do business in the Oval Office.

Meanwhile, Clinton tried to portray Trump as a reckless candidate with no experience fighting terrorism.

Both Clinton and Trump tried to use the attacks to flex their national security credentials, with world leaders gathering in security-heightened NY for the annual United Nations General Assembly.

Clinton and Trump are slated, separately, to meet Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi and Clinton has additional meetings with Japan's Shinzo Abe and Ukraine's Petro Poroshenko.