In an interview with Fox News' Fox and Friends, presumptive GOP nominee for president Donald Trump seemed to make a connection between the tragic shooting at the Pulse gay nightclub in Orlando on early Sunday morning and president Barack Obama. These remarks follow a statement Trump released on Sunday asking for the president to resign for not calling the shooting an act of "Islamic terror."
"He either doesn't get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands, it's one or the other, and either one is unacceptable," Trump said after he was asked about his request for the president to step down. In the interview that lasted nearly 20 minutes, Trump also hinted at conspiracy by saying,
Look, we're led by a man that either is not tough, not smart, or he's got something else in mind. And the something else in mind, you know, people can't believe it. People cannot, they cannot believe that President Obama is acting the way he acts and can't even mention the words 'radical Islamic terrorism.' There's something going on. It's inconceivable. There's something going on.
Trump also criticized the president for calling for gun law reform in the wake of the Orlando shooting, which is the most deadly in the history of the United States.
In a Today Show interview that followed his interview on Fox and Friends, Trump was asked to clarify his remarks about the president on Fox, where he told Savannah Guthrie,
Well there are a lot of people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it. A lot of people think maybe he doesn't want to know about it. I happen to think that he just doesn't know what he's doing, but there are many people that think maybe he doesn't want to get it. He doesn't want to see what's really happening. And that could be. ...
The president definitively condemned the Orlando shooting on Sunday when he said,
First of all, our hearts go out to the families of those who have been killed. Our prayers go to those who have been wounded. This is a devastating attack on all Americans. It is one that is particularly painful for the people of Orlando, but I think we all recognize that this could have happened anywhere in this country. And we feel enormous solidarity and grief on behalf of the families that have been affected.
Regardless of anyone's personal allegiance to either political figure, Trump's statements certainly seem to stand at odds with those of the president. Watch a video of Obama's full commentary on the shooting below.
UPDATE 5:00 p.m. ET:
Donald Trump denounced the Washington Post calling it "phony" and "dishonest" before announcing he was revoking its press credentials. Trump posted on Facebook:
