President Obama Denounces ‘Yapping’ in Trump’s Response to Orlando

President Barack Obama for months has taken presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump to task for his proposed policies toward Muslims. On Tuesday, he broadened his criticism of Trump’s plans to the entire GOP.

Speaking at the Treasury Department days after Omar Mateen killed 49 at a gay nightclub in Orlando, the president said banning Muslims from entering the country, or targeting Muslim communities in the United States, “betrays the very values America stands for.” His comments came a day after Trump again accused Muslim communities in the United States of being complicit in attacks, and suggested Obama has a secret agenda that keeps him from targeting Islamic terrorists.

Obama didn’t cite Trump by name, though he dismissed the Republican’s rhetoric as “yapping” and appeared visibly irritated as he asked: “Where does this stop?”

“The Orlando killer, one of the San Bernardino killers, the Fort Hood killer, they were all U.S. citizens,” Obama said. “Are we going to start treating all Muslim Americans differently?”

Then he asked the entire Republican Party whether they really backed Trump’s proposals. Many in the GOP, including House Speaker Paul Ryan, have said they support their party’s nominee but still disavow his plan to bar Muslims from entering the United States.

“Do Republican officials actually agree with this? Because that’s not the America we want,” Obama said.

Obama also responded to Republican critics who focus on the president’s refusal to call the Orlando shooter — and other attackers who claim inspiration from the Islamic State — a consequence of “radical Islam.” Trump and other GOP officials have suggested the omission means the president is not confronting the cause of the problem.

“What exactly would using this label accomplish?” Obama said. “What exactly would it change? Would it make [the Islamic State] less committed to trying to kill Americans? Would it bring in more allies? If there a military strategy that is served by this?”

“The answer is none of the above,” the president said.

Obama also used the occasion to call anew for stricter controls on guns, which the GOP has blocked for years.

“We have to make it harder for people who want to kill Americans to get their hands on weapons of war,” Obama said. He added: “People with possible ties to terrorism who aren’t allowed on a plane shouldn’t be able to buy a gun.” Current U.S. laws allow even people on the FBI’s terror watch list to still legally purchase guns.

The FBI was aware of Mateen’s possible ties to radical Islam. He was investigated twice — in 2013 and 2014 — but was cleared in each inquiry. The shooter pledged allegiance to the Islamic State, although Obama said the attack was not directed by an outside group and that there is no known communication between Mateen and Islamic State operatives. Mateen also expressed solidarity with the Boston Marathon bombers and Moner Mohammad Abusalha, the first American to carry out a suicide attack in Syria.

Obama’s forceful comments came after his endorsement last week of presumptive Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. They signal how aggressively and personally he plans to to rebut Trump’s nativist articulation of America’s role in the world as the 2016 race enters the general election.

But the statement was not just a rebuttal of Trump — it was a forceful defense of his administration’s handling of the fight against the Islamic State in Iraq, Syria, and Libya. He said that the number of Islamic State fighters has shrunk to the lowest level in 2½ years, and that the terror group is losing territory on all three fronts.

In a noteworthy inclusion, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Joe Dunford stood at the president’s side as Obama delivered his politically tinged remarks. The military has taken great pains to stay out of the national security politics of the 2016 election, even as Trump has said he would order troops to target terrorists’ families and bring back interrogation techniques that amount to torture — both of which would violate both international law and the military’s own code.  

Dunford’s two-year term as joint chiefs chairman began in September 2015. That means he would be expected to serve as Trump’s top military advisor for several months at least if the businessman wins the White House.

FP Senior Reporter Molly O’Toole contributed to this report. 

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