Hillary Clinton fired back by warning against demonising Muslim Americans, and turned to gun control as a way to combat violence and terrorism.
Advertisement
Donald Trump went on the attack. “You have people that were born in this country” who are susceptible to becoming “radicalized”, the billionaire real estate mogul said on Fox. If the Federal Bureau of Investigation is watching you for suspected terrorist links, you shouldn’t just be able to go buy a gun.
Presumptive Republican U.S. presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks at St. Anselm College outside Manchester, New Hampshire, June 13, 2016.
Seems clear to me that Trump got caught in a clumsy and audible dog whistle and instead of shrugging it off as he often does, he chose to make an example of Johnson and the Post (assuming being excluded from Trump events is a punishment) for some reason beyond my understanding. Earlier in the day on CNN, however, Clinton said, “Whether you call it radical jihadism, radical Islamism, I’m happy to say either. And I am one of them”. Clinton said she would put together teams of government and private sector officials to try to identify lone wolf terrorists and ensure law enforcement agencies have the resources they need for such efforts. “Not gonna happen folks, not gonna happen”.
He touted an upcoming meeting with the National Rifle Association, which endorsed him, to find ways for “Americans to protect themselves in this age of terror”.
Clinton also proposed clamping down on Islamic State’s (IS) online propaganda, increasing air strikes in IS-held areas, and strengthening ties with USA allies in the Middle East. “He doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands – it’s one or the other and either one is unacceptable”.
Trump said Clinton’s stance on immigration would allow more anti-gay Islamists into the country.
“We need to tell the truth about how radical Islam is coming to our shores”.
Baker also defended the Muslim community and urged the public not to let the acts of a few tarnish the community.
“Hillary Clinton can never claim to be a friend of the gay community as long as she continues to support immigration policies that bring Islamic extremists to our country who suppress women, gays and anyone elese who doesn’t support their views and values”, Trump said.
Clinton is a Democrat, but as the conservative writer Matthew Continetti put it, she was speaking up for a bipartisan post-Cold War consensus on security and global relations, a consensus Trump is proposing to chuck. They’re qualities to fear.
Clinton didn’t avoid the prospect of a link to worldwide terrorism in her statement, though she was vague in her language. And while fully recognizing the risk of “a distorted version of Islam”, she suggested more collaboration with Muslims, not less, in order to eradicate the metastasizing threat.
“When you are focused on something as big as helping the country respond to the worst mass shooting in our nation’s history. and combating violent extremism, it’s important not to get distracted by things that are so small”, White House spokesman Joshua Earnest said.
Trump said the attack was an “assault on the ability of free people to live their lives, love who they want and express their identity”.
Trump, on the other hand, showed no reluctance in conducting political warfare even as a jolted nation mourned another mass-casualty loss. “We can’t afford to be politically correct any more”. “We’ve got to unify in our resolve to address this”.
The respective speeches signaled the enormous political gap between these two candidates, as Trump and Clinton don’t even agree on the issues that need to be tackled.
Advertisement
Trump is hardly the first politician to try to capitalize on a tragedy, though he’s more blatant than most in connecting his electoral prospects to incidents of unimaginable suffering. Clinton didn’t mention any shift on immigration law or a dramatic parting from the anti-terror policies now being administered.
