Trump and Clinton contrasts in Orlando response

“It’s one or the other. And either one is unacceptable”. “What I won’t do, because I think it is unsafe for our efforts to defeat this threat, is to demonize and demagogue and, you know, declare war on an entire religion”.

“We need to tell the truth about radical Islam”, Trump declared, “and we need to do it now”.

“It matters what we do more than what we say and it mattered we got bin Laden, not what name we called him”, Clinton said.

Hillary Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, says the United States shouldn’t fall into the “trap set by the gun lobby” that suggests if you can’t stop all shootings, you don’t try to stop any.

Hillary Clinton finally relented and said the words “radical Islam”, even as President Obama continued to resist and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump criticized both.

Clinton called into “New Day” on CNN to discuss the shootings in Orlando, and was quick to link the attack to the terror organization.

With many victims of the carnage yet to be identified, and police still probing the suspected Islamist ties of the slain gunman, Trump wasted no time in harnessing the assault to his political advantage.

Mrs Clinton postponed her first joint event with President Barack Obama on Wednesday in Green Bay, Wisconsin, because of the Orlando shooting, and Mr Trump cancelled a rally on Monday in Portsmouth, New Hampshire.

“The idea the president is a Manchurian candidate, a mole or agent for jihadism is a stunning accusation, even by the standard of a presidential campaign in which Trump has delivered a series of breathtaking statements…”

On Friday, Trump accused Clinton of failing to understand the gravity of the risk posed by Syrian refugees in a speech to a conservative Christian group. The attack took place at a gay nightclub.

The horrific shooting consumed the White House race just as Trump and Clinton were fully plunging into the general election campaign.

The shooter, Omar Mateen, was a New York-born son of Afghan immigrants. “I am one of them”, she tweeted.

Mateen opened fire at the Pulse Orlando club with an AR-15 semi-automatic rifle in such close quarters that the bullets could hardly miss.

American officials have said the gunman – who was born in Queens – pledged allegiance to terrorist group the Islamic State.

Clinton said she would prioritize stopping “lone wolf” attackers as president – those who may be radicalized without having direct contact or orders from a larger terror network.

Despite a lack of connection to a bigger plot, the president said the mass shooting may have been inspired by extremist information. “Let’s make sure we keep looking to the best of our country, to the best within each of us”. “And we have to know who they are”, he added. Trump has previously called for a ban on Muslim men and women from entering America.

“Hillary Clinton wants to dramatically increase admissions from the Middle East, bringing in many hundreds of thousands during a first term – and we will have no way to screen them, pay for them, or prevent the second generation from radicalising”, Trump alleged.