ORLANDO, Fla. – President Barack Obama said Thursday that a military campaign against terrorism abroad won’t be enough to prevent “lone wolf” attacks like Sunday’s nightclub shooting in Orlando, as he offered condolences and support to families of the victims.
“We’re going to have to do more to prevent these kinds of events from occurring. It’s going to take more than just our military,” Obama said, an apparent reference to proposals for stricter gun-control laws. That was after he laid flowers at a makeshift memorial during an afternoon visit to the grieving city.
“We can’t wipe away hatred and evil from every heart in the world. But we can stop some tragedies. We can save some lives,” he said.
Obama praised the Senate for scheduling votes next Monday on gun control measures, although the legislation is likely to fail.
Obama traveled to Orlando as the city prepared to bury its first victims from the mass shooting. The president and Vice President Joe Biden spent hours meeting privately with survivors of the attack, victims’ relatives and police officers who responded to the scene on Sunday, when 49 people were killed.
The president later told reporters the families talked to him about their loved ones and their grief over young lives taken.
“Our hearts are broken, too,” Obama said he told them.
The low-key visit reflected the challenge for the president to find something meaningful to say about an attack that has stoked a wide mix of fears about terrorism, guns and violence against gays.
Obama’s call for solidarity and empathy stood in contrast to the roiling political debate in Washington and the campaign trail that has sprung up since the attack. Arizona Sen. John McCain, a Republican and frequent Obama critic, accused the president of being “directly responsible” for the shooting because, he said, Obama had allowed the growth of the Islamic State group on his watch. McCain later said he “misspoke.”
The gunman, Omar Mateen, had made calls during the attack saying he was an ISIS supporter. But CIA Director John Brennan said Thursday that the agency has found no connection between the gunman and any foreign terrorist organization.
Investigators were working to reconstruct the movements of the 20-year-old shooter before he opened fire at the Pulse dance club, including what his wife may have known about the attack. The Senate Homeland Security Committee’s chairman sent a letter to Facebook asking for help with messages denouncing the “filthy ways of the west” left on Facebook accounts believed to be associated with Mateen before and during the attack.
Outside the Amway Center in downtown Orlando, where Obama met with families, hundreds gathered in punishing heat hoping to get a glimpse of the president – including some who knew victims of the shooting. Brittany Woodrough, 20, was still in shock as she recalled one of the victims, Jason Benjamin, whom she described as a close friend.
“Seeing President Obama here makes it real,” Woodrough said.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said part of Obama’s goal was to show solidarity with gays and lesbians who were targeted in the attack. He called the visit a “solemn responsibility” that had weighed heavily on the president in the days since the attack.
“The president understands that he is a symbol of the country,” Earnest said.
Obama’s call for rejecting bigotry against gays and lesbians is complicated by the possibility that the gunman may have been wrestling with his own sexuality. The FBI has been looking into reports that Mateen frequented the nightspot and reached out to men on gay dating apps.
Florida Gov. Rick Scott, a Republican frequently at odds with Obama, greeted the president on the airport tarmac upon his arrival. Florida Sen. Marco Rubio, also a Republican, traveled with Obama from Washington, along with Rep. Corrine Brown, a Democrat who represents parts of the city. Biden and Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., joined Obama on the tarmac.
The investigation and makeshift memorials in Orlando have seemed a world away from Washington and the presidential campaign, where initial horror has quickly given way to a vicious political brawl.
