Fiorina Accuses Obama, Clinton of Politicizing San Bernardino Shooting

ByJORDYN PHELPS ABCNews logo
Friday, December 4, 2015

Carly Fiorina is already accusing President Obama and Hillary Clinton of politicizing the day-old California rampage.



"As the tragedy in San Bernardino unfolds, predictably, without knowing any of the facts of what has happened there or why, President Obama and Hillary Clinton immediately came out and made a political statement for gun control," Fiorina said in response to a question about Second Amendment rights during a live video Twitter town hall Wednesday night.



"We know, the facts are very clear, that of all the people in the United States that should not own firearms, and there are so many, less than 1 percent of them are ever prosecuted," the Republican presidential candidate said. "So instead of, Mrs. Clinton, calling for more laws, why don't we enforce the laws that we have and as well enforce the Second Amendment."



As the shooting unfolded Wednesday morning, Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton was addressing the issue of gun control in Orlando and called for "comprehensive background checks" and "closing gun show loopholes." Obama, in an interview with CBS, appealed for bipartisan action and said there are more "steps we can take, not to eliminate every one of these mass shootings, but to improve the odds that they don't happen as frequently."



Fiorina, a former businesswoman and CEO, this morning labeled Wednesday's shooting a likely terrorist attack and said she'd be addressing it as such if she were president.



"Everything points to a terrorist attack, a homegrown terrorist attack such as the FBI director has been warning us about," Fiorina said in an interview on Fox. "Our own FBI director said recently that the FBI was 'overwhelmed by the number of Islamist extremist suspects in the U.S. today.'"



Fiorina, condemning the idea of stronger gun control laws, said that "now is not the time to call for law-abiding citizens to put down their guns."



Fiorina also expressed her sorrow at the shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 14 people. At the beginning of her town hall Wednesday, she revealed that she had thought about canceling the event because of the massacre.



"I considered canceling this broadcast tonight because of that unfolding tragedy, but then I considered that given so many tragedies here at home and around the world that actually tonight was a very important night to talk about leadership and to talk about the issues that face us as a nation," Fiorina said.



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