Trump, Clinton Spark Debate Over Cause of Orlando Shooting

“Many, many people are out there with worse intentions than what this guy had,” Trump told Fox News. “And people in his community and their community know  who these people are. In some cases they’re married to them.”

“We need to gather intelligence. We have to look in the mosques, in the community, believe me, the community knows of such people who could potentially explode. They knew about this guy,” Trump said in an interview with CNN, referring to Orlando shooter Omar Mateen.

The republican candidate went as far as calling on Obama to step down from the presidency and challenged Clinton to step up her language regarding terror threats.

“President Obama disgracefully refused to even say the words 'Radical Islam,'” Trump said in the statement. “For that reason alone, he should step down. If Hillary Clinton, after this attack, still cannot say the two words 'Radical Islam' she should get out of this race for the Presidency.”

Earlier, Trump was heavily criticized for his proposal to temporarily ban Muslims from entering the US.

On the other end of the spectrum, Hillary Clinton, who is a Democratic presidential hopeful called for tighter gun controls in the United States.

​Reiterating President Barack Obama’s words that it was an “act of terror” and “act of hate,” Clinton urged to “redouble our efforts to defend our country from threats at home and abroad,” including from international terrorist groups.

She expressed opinion that demonizing an entire religion is not an option. “We cannot demonize, demagogue and declare war on an entire religion. That is just dangerous and it plays into the hands of Daesh and other jihadist terrorists," Clinton stated in an interview with MSNBC.

She expressed her support to the victims, “To the LGBT community: please know that you have millions of allies across our country. I am one of them.”

​US President Barack Obama said Monday that there is no evidence that the Orlando massacre was “directed from abroad.”

The US President said that the attack appears to be an act of home-grown terrorism. He further said that the deadly shooting is investigated as a terrorist attack, and noted that the incident resembles the December shooting in San Bernardino.

Obama said that the investigation was at a preliminary stage and refrained from making a connection to radical Islam any further.

When commenting on the fact that the shooter purchased guns legally, Obama did however say that, “we are going to have to think of the risks of being so lax about access to powerful firearms.”

“It was not difficult to obtain these types of weapon,” Obama said, noting that the gunman had an assault rifle and Glock handgun.

The political divide amongst the US politicians following the Orlando shooting was noticed by social media users who didn’t waste any time in pointing that out and adding their own opinions to an already complicated situation.

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