President says GOP candidate’s comments targeting Muslims in wake of Orlando shooting don’t represent ‘America we want’; Ryan says Muslim ban is a non-starter
President Barack Obama tore into presumptive nominee Donald Trump and the Republican party for “loose talk” and anti-Muslim rhetoric Tuesday, warning their populist campaign platform was dangerous and un-American.
Lambasting “politicians who tweet and appear on cable news shows,” a visibly angry Obama said that right-wing bombast had whipped up anger but done nothing to prevent terrorism.
The death of 49 people at a gay nightclub in Orlando attacked by a self-described Islamic State sympathizer has poured kerosene on an already angry election-year debate over guns, counterterrorism, sexuality and faith.
Obama took specific aim at Trump’s controversial proposal to ban all Muslims from entering the United States on counterterrorism grounds.
“Where does this stop?” Obama demanded, shedding his usual calm public persona to denounce “language that singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complicit in violence.”
“Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? are we going to start discriminating them because of their faith?”
“We’re starting to see where this kind of rhetoric and loose talk and sloppiness about who exactly we’re fighting, where this can lead us.”
Trump and his fellow Republicans regularly assail Obama as being weak on terror, citing his refusal to describe the Islamic State as “radical Islamic terrorists.”
“What exactly would using this label accomplish?” Obama asked.
“What exactly would it change? Would it make ISIL less committed to trying to kill Americans?” he said, using an alternate acronym for the Islamic State group. “Would it bring in more allies? Is there a military strategy that is served by this?”
“The answer is none of the above,” said Obama.
“There’s no magic to the phrase ‘radical Islam’. It’s a political talking point. It’s not a strategy.”
“Not once has an adviser of mine said, ‘man, if we really use that phrase, we’re going to turn this whole thing around.’”
Trump — who has long raised questions about Obama’s birth — has appeared to suggest that the president may even be in league with jihadists.
“Look, we’re led by a man that either is not tough, not smart or he’s got something else in mind,” Trump told Fox News.
“He doesn’t get it or he gets it better than anybody understands — it’s one or the other, and either one is unacceptable,” he added.
Hillary Clinton, Trump’s likely Democratic opponent in the race to the White House, accused him of offering “bizarre rants” and “demonstrative lies” in his response to the Orlando massacre.
In a point-by-point rebuttal to the presumptive GOP nominee’s Monday address, Clinton said Tuesday that Trump has to “distract us from the fact that he has nothing substantive to say.”
She said the Republican falsely identified the native-born shooter as an immigrant, arguing that Trump’s anti-immigration platform and ban on Muslims entering the country would not have “saved a single life.”
“The terrorist who carried out this attack wasn’t born in Afghanistan as Donald Trump said yesterday, he was born in Queens, New York just like Donald was himself,” she told union members at a campaign event in Pittsburgh.
Clinton also said Trump falsely accused her of wanting to allow a flood of unverified refugees into the country and eradicate the second amendment.
“We need a commander-in-chief who can grapple with our challenges in all their complexity, with real plans that actually address them,” she says.
She also said Trump accusing Obama of being “on the side of the terrorists” was “shameful.”
The remark “is way beyond anything that should be said by anyone running for president of the United States,” she said.
Earlier in the day, House Speaker Paul Ryan, a Republican, said Trump’s proposal for a ban on Muslims entering the United States is not in the nation’s interest.
Ryan told reporters at a news conference Tuesday that there should be a security test, not a religious test. He said the issue is “radical Islam,” not the Islamic faith.
‘IS losing strength’
Obama’s comments came after a meeting with his national security advisers on the threat posed by IS. He also was briefed on the investigation into the Orlando nightclub shooting.
He said the Islamic State group was losing ground in Iraq and Syria, and that the number of foreign fighters joining the extremists was plummeting.
“ISIL lost nearly half of the populated territory it had in Iraq and it will lose more. ISIL continues to lose ground in Syria as well,” Obamasaid.
“In short, our coalition continues to be on offense. ISIL is on defense,”Obama said, using an alternate acronym for the group.
Addressing the Orlando shooting, Obama voiced solidarity with the LGBT community, calling the gunman an “angry, disturbed, unstable young man who became radicalized.”
“You are not alone. The American people and our allies and friends all over the world stand with you,” Obama said.
The IS group claimed responsibility for the shooting in Orlando early Sunday. The gunman, Omar Mateen, pledged allegiance to the IS leader in 911 calls made during the attack, the FBI said.
As reported by The Times of Israel