Democratic presidential frontrunner Hillary Clinton reiterated her plan to defeat the Islamic State after a mass shooting at an LGBT nightclub in Orlando, Florida left 50 people dead and dozens of others injured.
“The Orlando terrorist may be dead but the virus that poisoned his mind remains alive,” Clinton said Monday at a rally in Cleveland, Ohio.
The shooter, identified as U.S. citizen Omar Mateen, reportedly pledged allegiance to the Islamic State on a 911 call he made from inside the LGBT club. Mateen, 29, died in a shootout with SWAT members as they attempted to rescue hostages Mateen had taken.
“Whatever we learn about this killer, we know already the barbarity we face from radical jihadists is profound,” Clinton said.
Clinton argued that the country would have to work with our allies to defeat the ISIL terrorist group, strengthen defenses at home and boost relationships with local law enforcement and business owners to prevent attacks.
“As president, I will make identifying and stopping lone wolves a top priority,” Clinton said.
She called for more resources to investigate whether more could be done to prevent such attacks and said it was “essential that we stop terrorists to get the tools they need to carry out the attacks.” Clinton noted that one of the weapons Mateen used, the AR-15 rifle, was used by terrorists in the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California as well.
“That was the same assault weapon used to kill those little children in Sandy Hook,” she said. “We have to make it harder for people who should not have those weapons of war.”
Clinton argued FBI surveillance for potential terrorist links should disqualify someone from purchasing a gun and that so-called loopholes for purchasing guns, such as online markets, should be closed.
Clinton said she wanted to get “back to the spirt” of working with Republicans to address the nation’s security as she did as a New York senator following the days of 9/11.
“I was a senator from New York. There was a Republican president, a Republican governor, and a Republican mayor,” she said. “We did not attack each other, we worked with each other to protect our country and to rebuild our city.”
This post has been updated.
So right after she started this speech hecklers interrupted her and started chanting “H is for hypocrisy!”
I need to know whether those idiots are Bros or Trumpkins.
I must have missed that since I didn’t see the very beginning but I thought she was terrific. She never mentioned the Trumpty Dumpty but she didn’t have to. I thought she did a great job.
Could be both - Brumpkins
Someone tell us how you stop individuals unaffiliated with a known terrorist organization from unleashing mayhem. The loose-mouthed, undisciplined lone wolves can at best be identified and watched, but available manpower limits the degree and thoroughness of your monitoring. The most determined, secretive and discreet lone wolves can go about their business relatively unnoticed.
Free speech and criminal statutes don’t permit locking someone up for merely mouthing anti-American or violent sentiments. If they did there would be an inmate populace for those offenses alone running into the millions.
The Bush administrations, and to a lesser degree Obama, killed hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians waging at times indiscriminate warfare in the Middle East pre and post 9/11. Additionally many innocents were/are jailed erroneously, many for years, possibly for life. Imagine how many people related to those killed and jailed are pissed off. Very pissed off, with a major ax to grind, wanting revenge. Revenge for the deaths or wrongful incarceration of sisters, brothers, spouses, children, parents and friends.
We’ve brought much of this on ourselves. We wildly and disproportionally overreacted to 9/11 and continued in that vein, even until today. Reap what you sow indeed.
I read a long article about the crisis in Brazil that included this ominous practice:
“…indefinite preventive imprisonment, prisão cautelar”
I’m surprised Trump hasn’t made it a platform plank. Rather than harp on bombing the families of ISIS fighters, he could be lining the pockets of the the profitable prison industry–which ironically employed the villain in this massacre.
Here is the article on Brazil.