Name: Obama: We’re Still Looking into the Orlando Killer’s Motivation
Uploaded: 2016-06-13
Duration: 7 min 48 s
Description: He says it's an ongoing terrorism investigation.

[ BLANK_AUDIO ] I just had the opportunity to get the latest briefing from FBI director Comey as well as Deputy Attorney General Yates and the rest of my National Security Team about the tragedy that took place in Orlando. They're gonna be doing a more extensive briefing around noon and just a little bit after noon over at FBI headquarters, so I will allow them to go into all the details but I thought it was important for you to hear directly from me. First of all Our hearts go out to the families of those who been killed. Appears to those who 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. The fact that it took place at a club frequented by the LGBT community I think is also relevant Were still looking at all the motivations of the killer, but it's a reminder that regardless of race religion faith or sexual orientation were all American. We need to be looking after each other and protecting each other at all times in the face of this kind of terrible act. With respect to the killer, there has been a lot of reporting that's been done. It's important to emphasize that we're still. At the preliminary stages in the investigation and there's a lot more that we have to learn. The one thing that we can say is that this is being treated as a terrorist investigation. It appears that the shooter was inspired by Various extremist information that was disseminated over the Internet. All those materials are currently being searched, exploited so we will have a better sense of the pathway that the killer took in making a decision Launched this attack. As Director Comey I think will indicate, at this stage we see no clear evidence that he was directed externally. It does appear that at the last minute, he [ SOUND ] Announced allegiance to ISIL. But there is no evidence so far that he was, in fact, directed by [ UNKNOWN ]. Also, at this stage, there's no direct evidence that he was part of a larger plot. In that sense, it appears to be similar. Or to what we saw in San Bernardino but we don't yet know. And this is part of what is gonna be important in terms of the investigation. As far as we can tell right now this is certainly an example of the kind of homegrown extremism that all of us Has been so concerned about for a very long time. It also appears that he was able to obtain these weapons legally because he did not have a criminal record that Some ways would prohibit him from purchasing these weapons. It appears that one of those weapons he was able to just carry out of the store, an assault rifle, a handgun, a Glock, Which had a lot of clips in it. He was apparently required to wait for three days under Florida law, but it does indicate the degree which it was not difficult for him to obtain these kinds of weapons. Director Comey will discuss the fact that That there had been some investigation of him in the past that was triggered, but as Director Comey I think will indicate, the FBI followed the procedures they were supposed to and did a proper job. At the end of the day This is something that we are going to have To grapple with, making sure that, even as we go after ISIS and other extremist organizations overseas, even as we hit their leadership, even as we go after their infrastructure, even as we take Key personnel off field even as we disrupt external plots. That one of the biggest challenges we are gonna have is this kind of propaganda, and perversions of Islam that you see generated on the internet. And the capacity for that to seep in to the minds of troubled individuals. Or weak individuals. And seeing them motivated then to take actions against people here in the United States and elsewhere in the world that are tragic. And so cowering This extremist ideology is increasingly gonna be just as important as making sure that we're disrupting more extensive plots engineered from the outside. We are also going to have to make sure that we think about the risks we are willing to take By how so lax in how we make very powerful firearms available to people in this country. And this is something that obviously I've talked about for a very long time. My concern Is that we start getting into a debate as has happened in the past, which is an either or debate, with suggestions either we think about something as terrorism. And we ignore the problems with easy access to firearms or it's all about firearms and we ignore the role, the very real role, that organizations like ISIL have in generating extremist views inside this country. It's not an either / or. It's a both / and. We have to go after these terrorist organizations and hit them hard. We have to counter extremism, But we also have to make sure that it is not easy for somebody who decides they wanna harm people in this country to be able to obtain weapons to get at them and you know, my hope is that over the next days and weeks that we are Being sober about how we approach this problem that we let the facts get determined by our investigators. But we also do some reflection in terms of how we can best tackle what is gonna be a very challenging problem, not just here in this country but around the world. [ BLANK_AUDIO ]

He says it's an ongoing terrorism investigation.