U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said that "love" the best tool to fight terrorism. This response could go down in history as one of the worse reaction to a terror attack in the United States that left 49 people dead.
"Our most effective response to terror and hatred is compassion, unity and love," Lynch said after meeting with officials in Orlando, Fla., last 21 June — a week after a gunman carried out one of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
The attorney general's remark, which was picked up by multiple conservative news outlets, comes on the heels of the Justice Department’s invitation of controversy by initially redacting multiple references to ISIS in a partial transcript of one of the conversations that gunman Omar Mateen had with a 911 operator in the midst of his bloodshed.
Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi twice on the 50-second 911 call, but President Barrack Obama's administration originally redacted the mentions from a transcript released last 20 June. Officials wanted to avoid publicizing the group’s terror, they said.
But the move was quickly denounced by conservatives, who called it evidence of the administration's misguided refusal to focus on "radical Islamic terrorism." The White House has avoided using the phrase, claiming that extremism such as ISIS's is too detached from Islam to be considered a part of the religion, and warning that it demeans an entire religion with more than 1 billion followers.
The Justice Department quickly reversed course in the face of that outrage, and published the full transcript just a few hours later.
In the transcript, Mateen twice pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and is quoted as repeatedly speaking in Arabic.
"Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [Arabic]. I wanna let you know, I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings," he told the 911 dispatcher in the roughly 50-second phone call.
Mateen also declined to give his name, saying instead that he is a supporter of ISIS.
"My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State," he said.
"I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State."
"Our most effective response to terror and hatred is compassion, unity and love," Lynch said after meeting with officials in Orlando, Fla., last 21 June — a week after a gunman carried out one of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history.
The attorney general's remark, which was picked up by multiple conservative news outlets, comes on the heels of the Justice Department’s invitation of controversy by initially redacting multiple references to ISIS in a partial transcript of one of the conversations that gunman Omar Mateen had with a 911 operator in the midst of his bloodshed.
Mateen pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi twice on the 50-second 911 call, but President Barrack Obama's administration originally redacted the mentions from a transcript released last 20 June. Officials wanted to avoid publicizing the group’s terror, they said.
But the move was quickly denounced by conservatives, who called it evidence of the administration's misguided refusal to focus on "radical Islamic terrorism." The White House has avoided using the phrase, claiming that extremism such as ISIS's is too detached from Islam to be considered a part of the religion, and warning that it demeans an entire religion with more than 1 billion followers.
The Justice Department quickly reversed course in the face of that outrage, and published the full transcript just a few hours later.
In the transcript, Mateen twice pledged allegiance to ISIS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi and is quoted as repeatedly speaking in Arabic.
"Praise be to God, and prayers as well as peace be upon the prophet of God [Arabic]. I wanna let you know, I'm in Orlando and I did the shootings," he told the 911 dispatcher in the roughly 50-second phone call.
Mateen also declined to give his name, saying instead that he is a supporter of ISIS.
"My name is I pledge of allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of the Islamic State," he said.
"I pledge allegiance to Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi may God protect him [Arabic], on behalf of the Islamic State."