Should We Be Surprised?

By Ed Hoffman

I heard a lot of media commentators remarking that President Obama’s first speech after the attack in Orlando – now the largest mass shooting in American history – failed to include the terms “ISIS,” “Islamic State” or “Islamic terror.” “In fact,” one commentator said, “he made no reference to Islam at all.”

Of course he didn’t. Should we be surprised? He would much prefer to refer to this as an “act of hate” (something he can only get away with because it was directed at the gay community) – and then, wait 24 hours before calling the shooter a “an example of homegrown extremism” (something he does to ascribe blame to the United States rather than any faction of Islam, even a known foreign terror group like ISIS).

His lapdogs in the media followed suit by doing everything they could to steer us away from associating this attack on the gay community with radical Islam – because, remember, Muslims are supposed to love gay people and evangelical Christians are supposed to be the only group that doesn’t. That’s important to remember when it comes to the way the media is covering this atrocity. The fact that one of their favorite groups to protect at all costs (Islamic radicals) targeted another one of their favorite groups to protect at all costs (gay Americans) is a very inconvenient fact for them. They like to pretend like these two groups are on the same side, when those of us who pay attention understand that they are not and never have been. It will be very interesting to see how they reconcile that fact over the coming days.

But back to Obama. Why is he so intent on protecting the Muslim community? Why does he have no problem connecting Donald Trump’s “rhetoric” to a rare Trump supporter sucker punching a protestor – but this guy, Omar Marteen, can pledge his allegiance to ISIS and say “Allahu Akbar” to a 911 operator before opening fire on a nightclub full of gay Americans and Obama sees no connection to Islam there? I bet it would be different if the guy’s name was John Smith and he said “Make America great again” instead.

In a press conference Monday, FBI Director James Comey gave us some more facts Obama might find inconvenient. It turns out that Marteen also:

• Claimed family connections to Al Qaeda
• Said he was a member of Hezbollah
• Said he hoped law enforcement would raid his apartment and assault his wife and child so he could martyr himself

Again, these facts are problematic for Obama’s agenda. He’d much rather make this about guns and use it as an opportunity to lecture Americans about gun control. Again, should we be surprised?