Obama meets with San Bernardino victims’ families

US President Barack Obama spent almost three hours Friday with the families of most of the San Bernardino shooting victims and said he was moved by their emphasis on tolerance following the deadly attacks.

“We’re doing more with countries around the world, including our European partners, to prevent the flow of foreign terrorist fighters – both to places like Syria and Iraq, and back into our countries”, he said.

Obama stopped in California while on his way to Hawaii for his annual holiday getaway for Christmas.

“As hard as this time is for them and for the entire community, they’re also representative of the strength and the unity and the love that exists in this community and in this country”, Obama said late Friday after almost three hours of meetings with family members. The president and first lady soon descended the plane’s stairs. The pair met with San Bernardino Mayor Carey Davis and San Bernardino County Supervisor Chairman James Ramos on the tarmac shortly after.

A total of 14 people were shot to death and 22 injured by co-worker turned terrorists, Syed Rizwan Farook, as they attended a holiday banquet on December 2at the San Bernardino Inland Regional Center.

The subsequent investigation has revealed that Farook, a US citizen, and Malik, who entered the USA on a so-called fiancee visa, had been plotting an attack for months.

His wife, first lady Michelle Obama, joined him for the meetings at Indian Springs High School, just a short drive from the airport where Air Force One landed after the cross-country flight from Washington.

The Islamic State group has claimed responsibility for the November.

In a statement on the president’s clemency decision, Deputy U.S. Attorney General Sally Yates called it “another sign of this administration’s strong commitment to ensuring fairness in the criminal justice system”.

“That’s an area where I think we will be able to make a big difference”, Obama told reporters at his year-end news conference. After meeting with the families, he continued to Hawaii to begin two weeks of vacation with his wife and daughters in the island state where he was born.