It was last December’s attack in San Bernardino, Calif., that killed 14 people that led Trump to propose a temporary ban on Muslims entering the United States.
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Clinton, in several television interviews, said she would support stronger measures to prevent so-called lone wolf attacks and urged closer internet monitoring.
Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday to thank people for saying the Orlando attack showed he was “right” while warning that the tragedy is “just the beginning”.
The responses of Mr Trump and Ms Clinton to the deadliest mass shooting in modern United States history – 49 were killed and dozens were injured – were a study in contrasts for the two presumptive presidential nominees – one of whom will soon be leading a country fearful of terrorism, gun violence and the often merciless intersection of the two.
While Mr Trump pressed on with demands for more intrusive monitoring and surveillance of the Islamic community in the USA and of mosques, Ms Clinton warned against pitting one group of Americans against another and taking steps that might splinter the country along religious lines.
Though the gunman, Omar Mateen, was a USA citizen, Trump told Fox News on Monday that the U.S.is allowing others into the country who are “no different than this maniac”.
If we do not get tough and smart real fast, we are not going to have a country anymore.
While 50 people died and another 53 were said to be injured following the massacre early Sunday morning, Trump prompted backlash when he allegedly made the incident about himself and his campaign.
She said the deadliest shooting in USA history was “an act of hate”, noting that the gunman attacked a gay nightclub during June, when gays and lesbians celebrate Pride Month.
Rep. Ben Ray Lujan, D-N.M., chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said Trump’s self-congratulatory tweet and other comments served only “to further incite the worst in people”. That switch came a day after Trump called for Clinton to drop out of the race for president if she didn’t use the words “radical Islam” to describe the Florida nightclub massacre. I have clearly said we – whether you call it radical jihadism or radical Islamism, I’m happy to say either. “I am one of them”, she tweeted. President Barack Obama addressed the nation, calling the shooting “an act of terror” and an “act of hate”.
“Hate has absolutely no place in America”, Clinton said in the written statement.
“We need to keep guns like the ones used last night out of the hands of terrorists or other violent criminals”, Clinton said.
Clinton’s Democratic rival, Bernie Sanders, says Americans are horrified by the shooting but at this point we don’t know if it was an “act of terrorism, a bad hate crime against gay people or the act of a very sick person”. “They knew that this was tremendous potential for blow up”, Trump said. The president went on to be sympathetic to the victims, but spoke of unity, rather than division.
“Reporting that Orlando killer shouted “Allah hu Akbar!” as he slaughtered clubgoers”, he wrote.
“Whenever there’s a tragedy, everything goes up, my numbers go way up because we have no strength in this country”.
Donald Trump and the septic tank of Fox News, coming together once again to bring you things you could previously only hear from the most racist and conspiratorial chain letters.
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The New York businessman also tweeted Sunday that Obama should immediately resign for refusing to use the terror terminology favored by conservatives.
