President Obama stayed longer than expected during his visit to San Bernardino, where he was set to privately meet with families of victims in the terror attack.
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Obama’s visit to Southern California was added to his previously scheduled trip to Hawaii, where he and the first family will celebrate Christmas, as has been their tradition during his presidency.
“As hard as this time is for them and for the entire community, they’re also representative of the strength and the unity and the love that exists in this community and in this country”, Obama said late Friday after almost three hours of meetings with family members.
The San Bernardino massacre, carried out by Syed Rizwan Farook and his wife Tashfeen Malik, also left 22 people injured.
Pic:EPAWASHINGTON: President Barack Obama, seeking to counter pressure for a military escalation in response to terrorist attacks, told a group of news columnists this week that sending significant ground forces back to the Middle East could conceivably result in the deaths of 100 USA soldiers every month. Both were killed in a shootout with police. The couple pledged allegiance to a leader of the Islamic State group on Facebook, moments before the shooting, authorities said.
Federal Bureau of Investigation Director James Comey said on Wednesday there was no indication that Farook or Malik were part of an organized cell or had any contact with overseas militant groups.
Both attacks, coming days apart and just before the start of the holiday season, heightened public fears about future attacks on US soil.
It is the largest single group of commutations issued by Obama and brings the total number he has issued to 184, according to U.S. Justice Department statistics. Nine men and five women, ranging in age from 26 to 60, were killed. They briefly met with local officials before heading to a local high school for individual meetings with the families of each of the 14 victims, who where killed while attending a holiday party at the Inland Regional Center.
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In a private session at the White House, Mr Obama explained that his refusal to redeploy large numbers of troops to the region was rooted in the grim assumption that the casualties and costs would rival the worst of the Iraq War. After meeting with the families, he planned to continue to Hawaii to begin two weeks of vacation with his wife and daughters in the island state where he was born.
