“We’re led by a man who is a very – look, we’re led by a man that either is, is not tough, not smart, or he’s got something else in mind”, Trump said. “I am not going to demonize and demagogue and declare war on an entire religion”. Trump said in a series of tweets as he slammed the US President for not blaming radical Islam for the terror attack by the lone Afghan-origin gunman Omar Mateen at a public bar in Orlando that claimed at least 50 lives.
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Both Trump and Clinton are expected to deliver speeches Monday on their plans to prevent future attacks such as the one in Orlando – remarks that will further illustrate the differences among the two candidates.
Sunday’s shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando was carried out by Omar Mateen, who was born in NY and was living in Fort Pierce, Florida.
Preparing for an afternoon speech on terrorism, Trump conducted a series of television interviews to denounce Clinton, a former secretary of State, and President Obama over the attack that killed 49, the worst mass shooting in US history.
Donald Trump maintained his attacks Monday on President Obama and Hillary Clinton in the wake of the Orlando mass shooting, while Clinton and other Democrats said the presumptive GOP nominee’s rhetoric will only encourage more terrorist acts.
The gunman, identified by police as Omar Mateen, a 29-year-old US citizen from Fort Pierce, Florida, opened fire with an assault-style rifle inside a crowded gay nightclub in Orlando early Sunday, killing at least 49 people before dying in a gunfight with police.
With at least 50 dead and even more seriously injured, this was the worst mass shooting in US history.
“We have to be very, very strong”, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said in one of a host of broadcast interviews he undertook in advance of a speech he planned later Monday in New Hampshire.
Obama called the assault an “act of terror and an act of hate”, but said investigators had reached “no definitive judgment” for the killer’s motive. On Sunday, Trump had said Obama should “step down” for not using the term and Clinton should “get out of this race” if she won’t either.
“Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism?“.
We have to decide if that’s the kind of country we want to be.
In a statement late Sunday, the businessman went further than US officials investigating the shootings by asserting that the attack in Orlando was the work of a “radical Islamic terrorist”.
And Senator Bernie Sanders, still in the contest for the Democratic nomination despite Clinton’s claim on it, went on with a round of appearances on the Sunday talk shows.
The horrific shooting consumed the White House race just as Trump and Clinton were fully plunging into the general election campaign.
Trump and other Republicans have argued that the Obama administration fails to understand the enemy – a key component of which, they argue, is the radical Islamic ideology that is fueling terrorist attacks in the Middle East and increasingly in the West.
But this seems to have become a debate that goes beyond the words “radical Islamic terrorism“, right?
But the similarities between Mr. Trump’s angry attacks on minority groups, along with his recent endorsement of unrestricted gun ownership, and the similarly violent and intolerant views that appear to have motivated Mr. Mateen were already causing Mr. Trump some political damage within more moderate branches of the Republican Party.
“We can not fall into the trap set by the gun lobby that says, if you can not stop every shooting and every incident, you should not try to stop any”, Clinton said.
Clinton said the words didn’t matter as much as deaths by gun violence and terrorism. While Trump focused in particular on keeping out refugees from Syria, he said a ban should apply to people from “different parts of the world with this philosophy that is so hateful and so terrible”. Clinton argues that her experience – as first lady, United States senator and top diplomat – makes her the most qualified to be president.
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In a subsequent tweet, Trump reiterated his support for the Muslim immigration ban he proposed last winter, an issue many Republican leaders had hoped he would back off from. Mateen, 29, called 911 on Sunday morning and made comments saying he supported the Islamic State militant group, officials said.
