The shooter who killed at least 50 people in an Orlando, Florida, nightclub called dispatchers about 20 minutes into the attack, pledging allegiance to ISIS and mentioning the Boston Marathon bombers, a USA official said.
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Hours later, a law enforcement official confirmed to The Associated Press that Mateen had made a 911 call from the club, Mateen professed allegiance to the leader of Islamic State group, Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
Donald Trump issued a statement regarding the Orlando terrorist attack and called on Hillary Clinton to drop out of the presidential race if she can not say “the two words ‘Radical Islam'”.
Trump tweeted moments before Obama addressed the nation Sunday afternoon. Trump has expressed his belief that Hillary Clinton, presumptive nominee of the Democratic party, should drop out of the race if she isn’t able to say the words “radical Islam”. “When will we get tough, smart & vigilant?” the tweet said.
“I believe and hope that he’s going to change and improve his campaign”, Ryan said in an interview aired Sunday on ABC’s “This Week”. “For that reason alone, he should step down”, Trump said, adding that, “if Hillary Clinton, after this attack, still can not say the two words “Radical Islam” she should get out of this race for the presidency”.
Many of Trump’s followers commented on his tweets with, “Please make us safe”.
After extremists slaughtered 130 people in Paris last November and a Muslim husband-wife team murdered 14 in San Bernardino, California, Mr Trump called for a ban on Muslims entering the United States. The current POTUS, Barack Obama, just gave a statement minutes ago that this was an attack of “terror” and “hate”. “This was an act of terror”, Clinton said.
This is precisely what we DO NOT need right now. “That means defeating global terror groups”.
“It also means refusing to be intimidated and staying true to our values”, Clinton said in a statement. He said the FBI would investigate the shootings in the gay nightclub as terrorism, but added the gunman’s motivations were unclear. “I am going to be a President for all Americans, and I am going to protect and defend all Americans”, Trump said.
Today we are all lesbians and gays, and all of us, Republicans, Democrats and Independents, must continue to fight terrorism by celebrating our freedom and democracy. “Hate has absolutely no place in America”, she said. The shooting is the deadliest mass shooting in USA history.
Clinton, Trump’s Democratic rival for the White House, had been due to campaign with Obama on Wednesday, but cancelled the event while the Federal Bureau of Investigation probe continues.
Mrs Clinton now leads Mr Trump in head-to-head matchups, but “things can happen in the final weeks and months before the election”, explained Norman Ornstein, a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.
But as voters begin seriously weighing Clinton and Trump as their next commander in chief, Sunday’s shooting left little doubt that the choice between the two candidates is stark.
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She and President Obama, who endorsed Clinton last week, postponed their first joint campaign event which had been scheduled for Wednesday in Wisconsin.
