In a rare Oval Office address, President Barack Obama vowed Sunday night the United States would overcome a new terror threat that seeks to “poison the minds” of people here and around the world, as he sought to reassure Americans shaken by recent attacks in Paris and California.
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Obama cast the San Bernardino attack, which killed 14 people, as part of a string of attacks by radical Muslims, including deadly attacks in 2009 in Fort Hood, Texas, in Boston in 2013 and in Chattanooga, Tenn. earlier this year, the clearest signal yet from a president that there is a homegrown threat from radicalized Muslims.
Obama is expected to speak at 8 p.m. ISIS said in a radio broadcast that two of its “followers” had carried out the attack.
“The left’s immediate reaction to Islamic terrorists, like kittens with their eyes closed, is not to go after the bad guys, but immediately to try to seize the guns of law-abiding citizens”, said Senator and presidential candidate Ted Cruz.
With the prime-time address, Obama was turning to a tool of the presidency that he has used infrequently. She said Mr Obama may ask Congress “to review measures and take action” to safeguard national security, without offering specifics.
“This week, we have been witness on how evil can touch anyone, anywhere, any given moment”, he said.
Obama will talk more about his determination that the Islamic State group must be destroyed.
A woman held responsible for last week’s shooting in San Bernardino, California, had, under a Facebook alias, pledged allegiance to IS and its leader, according to USA official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity. Federal officials said the attack was an “act of terror” and are trying to determine whether there are any links to the Islamic State.
Obama has urged stricter gun laws following the California shootings, but like previous mass shootings, those calls have met resistance from gun control opponents.
“As we’ve become better at preventing complex multifaceted attacks like 9/11”, Obama said, “terrorists turn to less-complicated acts of violence like the mass shootings that are all-too common in our society”. Speaking from a podium, the president said the United States will prevail against ISIS by “being strong and smart”.
“When I hear folks say that maybe we should just admit the Christians but not the Muslims”, Obama said, “when I hear political leaders suggesting that there would be a religious test for which person who is fleeing from a war-torn country is admitted, when some of those folks themselves come from families who benefited from protection when they were fleeing political persecution, that’s shameful”. The pair took off in a rented getaway auto and both were killed later that day in a shootout with police.
“The investigation so far has developed indications of radicalization by the killers and of potential inspiration by foreign terrorist organizations”, said FBI Director James Comey, the Associated Press reported.
The poll was conducted before the attacks in San Bernardino and also showed a shift in public opinion on how to tackle the group with a majority – 53% – for the first time saying the USA should send ground troops to fight ISIS.
Because Farook and Malik had four guns, some 6,000 rounds of ammunition and a dozen pipe bombs either with them or at their rented townhouse in Redlands, a USA government source said investigators are becoming increasingly convinced they were planning multiple attacks.
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President Obama says “this was an act of terrorism created to kill innocent people”.
