OBAMA ASSAILS TRUMP’S REMARKS
U.S. president calls rhetoric a ‘distraction’
An angry President Barack Obama lashed out Tuesday at Republicans, particularly Donald Trump, who have called him soft on terrorism, warning that “loose talk” about Muslims has harmed the United States’ campaign against terrorist groups in the Middle East and elsewhere.
Obama challenged the demand by his critics that he characterize acts of terrorism, including Sunday’s mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando, as the work of “radical Islam” — a phrase the president has refused to use because he believes it unfairly implicates an entire religious group for the acts of extremists.
A day earlier, Trump, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, used the phrase to question Obama’s commitment to stopping terrorist acts, including the Orlando shooting — in which an Americanborn Muslim was the gunman — by saying the president refuses to define the enemy.
As the investigation into Sunday’s massacre continued, the FBI said it was exploring whether anti-gay bigotry prompted the attack on the popular Pulse nightclub that killed 49. In a 911 call during his shooting spree, the 29-year-old gunman, Omar Mateen, professed allegiance to ISIL (the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant). But his father, Seddique Mir Mateen, has suggested he was driven by a hatred of gays.
Adding another dimension to the probe, at least two witnesses at Pulse said Mateen had previously visited the nightclub. They also said they had seen him on Jack’d, a dating site for men, although Jack’d said it had been unable to confirm that Mateen had a profile on the site.
The Orlando Sentinel and other news organizations quoted other regulars from Pulse as saying they, too, had seen Mateen at the club repeatedly. “Sometimes he would go over in the corner and sit and drink by himself, and other times he would get so drunk he was loud and belligerent,” Ty Smith told the Sentinel. He said he saw Mateen inside at least a dozen times.
Mateen’s wife, Noor Zahi Salman, has increasingly drawn the focus of investigators. An official who was briefed on the progress of the case but insisted on anonymity said authorities believe Salman knew about the plot ahead of time, but they are reluctant to charge her on that basis alone.
She was involved in helping scout out the club at some point before the attack, according to a U.S. law enforcement official who asked not to be identified.
NBC News reported that several officials familiar with the case said Salman told the FBI she was with Mateen when he bought ammunition and a holster. She also told federal agents she had tried to talk her husband out of carrying out the attack, NBC News said.
The massacre — the worst mass shooting in U.S. history — has thrust the issues of terrorism, gun control and national security to the forefront of the nation’s political debate.
Hillary Clinton, the former secretary of state, said Monday that she was not afraid to use the phrase “radical Islam,” but she did not fault Obama for not using it, and said the actions to fight terrorism were more important than the rhetoric.
For his part, Obama asked Tuesday: “What exactly would using this label accomplish? What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this? The answer is, none of the above. Calling a threat by a different name does not make it go away. This is a political distraction.”
The president added: “There’s no magic to the phrase, ‘radical Islam.’ It’s a political talking point; it’s not a strategy.”
Obama emphasized that Mateen was born in the United States, as were the perpetrators in mass shootings in San Bernardino, Calif., in December, and at the Fort Hood military installation in Texas in 2009.