He called it yapping, loose talk, and sloppiness.
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“Is President Obama going to finally mention the words radical Islamic terrorism?”.
Obama dismissed the criticism as a “political talking point” and “not a strategy”, and he pointed to his success in tracking Osama bin Laden and other leaders, as evidence of his success.
No, Islam is not to blame when someone like Omar Mateen kills innocent people, when the cruel and mad warriors of ISIS and the Islamic Caliphate and some elements in Muslim Mindanao commit atrocities while shouting “Allah is Great!” The answer is none of the above.
Obama is questioning what the label would accomplish and says that calling a threat by a different name doesn’t make it go away.
Tuesday night, Trump shot back telling a rally audience in North Carolina that Obama “was more angry at me than he was at the shooter”. “That’s the kind of anger he should have for the shooter and these killers that shouldn’t be here”, Trump told the crowd. Investigators have yet to determine whether the extremist group had any direct role in the attack.
The president says using the term does nothing to prevent attacks and enhance our security.
After a meeting of the president’s National Security Council, Obama spoke at some length, not just about where things now stand, but also about the misguided rhetoric coming from the far-right.
The couple behind the San Bernardino attack also pledged allegiance to ISIS right before opening fire at an office party and killing 14 people in December.
This has been the daily challenge since 9/11, and as we were tragically reminded Sunday morning, the fight is ongoing. “If there is anyone out there who thinks we are confused about who our enemies are – that would come as a surprise to the thousands of terrorists who we have taken off the battlefield”.
“That’s the key, they tell us: We can’t beat ISIL unless we call them ‘radical Islamists, ‘” the president complained at a news conference after Tuesday’s meeting of the National Security Council.
“This is somebody who is a known ISIL sympathiser and if he wants to walk in to a gun store or a gun show right now and buy as many weapons and ammo as he can nothing is prohibiting him from doing that even though the Federal Bureau of Investigation knows who he is”.
“They lied”, Trump said in a February debate.
“Why then do you and Hillary want to control and restrict and limit gun manufacturers, gun owners and the responsible use to the rest of us, the good guys, instead of holding the bad guys accountable for their actions?” Once they are in retreat people stop recruiting. Trump-speak has become an infection in the political discourse, but he should not be used as a straw man for Obama to hide behind.
“We’re working with our law enforcement partners to find out everything that we can about what happened at the Pulse nightclub”, Lee Bentley, the U.S. Attorney for Florida’s middle district said on Wednesday.
As Obama argued that Trump’s ban on immigration would lead Muslim-Americans to believe their government had betrayed them, he urged Republicans to denounce the policy. It betrays the very values America stands for. And it has been a shameful part of our history. We don’t have religious tests here.
However, no formal deal between the parties for votes was announced, and it was unclear when and how the Senate would proceed with the votes, which would be amendments to an appropriations bill funding the Commerce and Justice departments.
Because if we could just get rid of scary-looking guns that perform in exactly the same way as less-scary-looking guns, we’ll be safe. And we can not let that happen.
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Near the end of his remarks, the president recalled the inspiration he felt in attending the recent graduation ceremony at the Air Force Academy. Our mission is to destroy ISIL. “Are we going to start discriminate them, due to their faith?”
