Clinton, Trump take opposite tacks as shooting shakes race

Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Photos by The Associated Press.
Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. Photos by The Associated Press.

WASHINGTON — The worst mass shooting in U.S. history shook the presidential campaign Monday, sending Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump scrambling to position themselves as best-qualified to lead a nation on edge over terrorism and gun violence.

In a flurry of TV interviews, Trump redoubled his call for banning Muslims who come from other countries, although the shooter in Sunday's Orlando nightclub attack was an American citizen born in New York. While Trump focused in particular on keeping out refugees from Syria, he said a ban should apply to people from "different parts of the world with this philosophy that is so hateful and so horrible."

The presumptive Republican nominee also appeared to suggest that President Barack Obama may sympathize with Islamic terrorists.

"He doesn't get it or, or he gets it better than anybody understands," Trump said on Fox News Channel's Fox and Friends. ''It's one or the other. And either one is unacceptable."

Clinton, the presumptive Democratic nominee, warned against demonizing an entire religion, saying doing so would play into the hands of the Islamic State. Like Obama, Clinton has often avoided using the phrase "radical Islam," which has angered Republicans. On Monday, she said "it matters what we do more than what we say."

"We can call it radical jihadism, we can call it radical Islamism," Clinton said on CNN's New Day. ''But we also want to reach out to the vast majority of American-Muslims and Muslims around this country, this world, to help us defeat this threat, which is so evil and has got to be denounced by everyone, regardless of religion."

She also renewed her call for an assault weapons ban that would outlaw one of the weapons used by the Orlando shooter. "We know the gunman used a weapon of war to shoot down at least 50 innocent Americans," she told CNN.

The attack left 49 people dead and dozens injured. The gunman died in a shootout with police.

Read Tuesday's Arkansas Democrat-Gazette for full details.

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