WASHINGTON — In the wake of the mass shooting in Orlando, Donald Trump took to Twitter Sunday to say he was “right” about warning about the danger of radical Islamic extremists — but didn’t want his supporters to pat him on the back.
“Appreciate the congrats for being right on radical Islamic terrorism, I don’t want congrats, I want toughness & vigilance. We must be smart!,” tweeted Trump, who has called for a ban on Muslims from entering the US and the destruction of ISIS.
Trump took credit as law enforcement indicated shooter, 29-year-old Omar Mateen, had been on the FBI’s radar as an ISIS sympathizer. He opened fire around 2 a.m. Sunday at Pulse nightclub, an LGBT hot spot, in a rampage that killed 50 and injured at least 50 more.
The mogul first announced a “really bad shooting in Orlando” that police are investigating for “possible terrorism.” But when the police identified the murder as terrorism, his tweets grew more intense.
“Horrific incident in FL,” Trump tweeted in the afternoon “Praying for all the victims & their families. When will this stop? When will we get tough, smart & vigilant?”
Meanwhile, President Obama is slated to address the nation at 1:30 pm today following the deadliest mass shooting in US history. Vice President Biden canceled his trip to Miami to fundraise for Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz and instead will return to Washington.
Top Trump surrogate Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) called for tougher screenings of Muslims coming into the United States.
“It certainly looks like another one of the extremist attacks, Islamic extremism,” Sessions (R-Ala.) told Fox News Sunday.
Sessions said the rampage will mean “further movement in the direction Donald Trump has set forth.”
“It’s not stopping, as we see apparently today,” Sessions said. “More of these attacks are coming. It’s a real part of the threat that we face. … We need to slow down and be careful about those we admit into the country.”
Democrats, include Bernie Sanders, quickly called for stricter gun control after police said Mateen use an AR-15 rifle and a handgun in the murder spree.
“He had an AR-15, an assault weapon,” New York Sen. Charles Schumer said Sunday. “It is very easy to get these kinds of guns in Florida. … But whatever happened, we have to get tougher on guns. We can’t have incident after incident after incident after incident. And in this country it is so easy for so many people to get these kinds of assault weapons whose only purpose is to shoot a whole lot of people.”
For her part, Hillary Clinton didn’t tackle gun control from the start.
“Woke up to hear the devastating news from FL. As we wait for more information, my thoughts are with those affected by this horrific act,” the presumptive Democratic nominee tweeted.
Sanders called for an assault weapons ban. “We should not be selling automatic weapons which are designed to kill people,” the Democratic presidential candidate told “Meet the Press.”
“We have got to do everything that we can on top of that to make sure that guns do not fall into the hands of people who should not have them, criminals, people who are mentally ill. So that struggles continues.”