Critics say Trump politicizing NYC attack
He blasted Dems for doing it after Las Vegas shooting
WASHINGTON — Two days after a shooter in Las Vegas used modified assault weapons to kill 58 people on Oct. 1, President Trump rebuffed questions about what the government could do to protect people from such attacks. "We’ll talk about that later,” he said.
But one month later, Trump responded to the killing of eight people in New York City — the worst Islamic terror attack on U.S. soil during his nine-monthold presidency — with a sense of swiftness and certainty.
Arms crossed at a cabinet meeting but addressing reporters Wednesday, Trump rattled off a litany of problems and proposed solutions for terror attacks, which he linked closely to U.S. immigration policies.
He promised to end the Diversity Visa Lottery Program that allowed the suspect into the country, and the "chain migration" of 23 family members that he said have followed. "They certainly could represent a threat," he said.
He criticized a justice system that he said moves too slowly on terror cases. "We also have to come up with punishment that's far quicker and far greater than the punishment these animals are getting right now," he said. "Because what we have right now is a joke and it's a laughingstock."
He even said he was considering sending the suspect to the U.S. military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba — a move that would be unprecedented and constitutionally questionable for a person arrested inside the United States. "Send him to Gitmo — I would certainly consider that, yes," he said.
And on Twitter, Trump also resorted to partisan and personal attacks. He blamed what he called "Democrat lottery systems ," including the 20-year-old program he called a "Chuck Schumer beauty."
The Department of Homeland Security confirmed that the driver, 29-year-old Sayfullo Saipov, was an immigrant from Uzbekistan who arrived legally in the United States in 2010 through a program known as the Visa Lottery Program.
Schumer, now the Senate minority leader, was part of a bipartisan group that drafted the bill creating the program. That law passed both houses of Congress overwhelmingly in 1990 and was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush.
Democrats quickly contrasted Trump's swift and self-assured response to that following the Las Vegas shooting a month ago, which claimed the lives of 58 people. The Islamic State claimed credibility for that attack, waged by a U.S. citizen, but the FBI says there's no evidence to support that claim.
"Now I get it," tweeted Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., a leading proponent of gun control. "If the killer is an immigrant you can talk about policy change, but if he's natural born, you're 'politicizing the tragedy.'"
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, called Trump's tweets "not helpful" and said he was "bothered" by attempts to politicize this situation. "I don't think that brings out the best in our country," Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., told NBC News.