Republican presumptive presidential candidate Donald Trump gave an aggressive response to the deadliest mass shooting in US history, quickly claiming the attack was the work of an Islamist State militant, while calling on US President Barack Obama to resign and for Democratic presumptive presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton to exit the presidential race.
For Trump, it was an attempt to frame the attack in Orlando in a light favorable to his campaign for the Nov. 8 presidential election.
Early on Sunday, when few facts were known about the shooting, he boasted on Twitter that it proved he had been right about his warnings over “radical Islamic terrorism.”
Photo: AFP
Trump canceled a planned evening rally in Portsmouth, New Hampshire, because of the shooting, but was to go ahead with a major speech at St Anselm’s College yesterday afternoon.
In a tweet just hours after the incident, he wrote: “Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance.”
Trump has made combating the threat of groups such as Islamic State a central part of his candidacy.
It was December last year’s attack in San Bernardino, California, that killed 14 people that led Trump to propose a temporary ban on Muslims entering the US. Trump revisited the proposal on Sunday after at least 50 people died in the attack on a gay nightclub in Orlando, Florida.
“What has happened in Orlando is just the beginning. Our leadership is weak and ineffective. I called it and asked for the ban. Must be tough,” Trump wrote on Twitter.
In a statement late on Sunday, the businessman went further than US officials investigating the shootings by asserting that the attack in Orlando was the work of a “radical Islamic terrorist.”
In remarks at the White House, Obama said the investigation into the shootings was ongoing and declined to speculate on the motives of the shooter.
“We’ve reached no definitive judgement on the precise motivations of the killer,” Obama said.
“The FBI is appropriately investigating this as an act of terrorism,” he said, later ordering flags at half-mast as an act of mourning.
Similarly, Clinton, in a statement, called the attack an “act of terror,” but did not speculate about the ideology of the gunman.
“Law enforcement and intelligence agencies are hard at work, and we will learn more in the hours and days ahead,” said Clinton, who expressed her sympathy for the victims and said “weapons of war” have no place on US streets.
In a statement from the Holy See, the pope lamented the tragic loss of life.
The attack had “caused in Pope Francis, and in all of us, the deepest feelings of horror and condemnation... before this new manifestation of homicidal folly and senseless hatred,” the statement said.
Council on American-Islamic Relations executive director Nihad Awad strongly condemned the massacre, calling members of the Islamic State group an “aberration” amid allegations the gunman was inspired by the extremists.
Awad also called for unity and urged politicians not to “exploit” the slaughter.
“This is a hate crime. Plain and simple. We condemn it in the strongest possible terms,” Awad told a news conference. “It violates our principles as Americans and as Muslims. Let me be clear, we have no tolerance for extremism of any kind.”
Additional reporting by AFP
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