SUNRISE, Fla. — A day after remarks that appeared to suggest that gun rights advocates harm Hillary Clinton, Donald J. Trump sprayed his fire at President Obama on Wednesday, accusing him of creating the Islamic State and saying the terrorist group
“honors” him.
“honors” him.
“In
many respects, you know, they honor President Obama,” Mr. Trump told a
raucous and rowdy crowd in Florida on Wednesday night. “He’s the founder
of ISIS. He’s the founder of ISIS. He’s the founder. He founded ISIS.”
He added, “I would say the co-founder would be crooked Hillary Clinton.”
During an extended riff on the crisis in Crimea, Mr. Trump added extra
emphasis on the president’s full name, saying that it occurred “during
the administration of Barack Hussein Obama.”
Mr.
Trump’s statement was an escalation in his recent criticism of the
Obama administration’s handling of the terror threat, as he had
previously accused only Mrs. Clinton of having a “founding” role in the
terror group. His suggestion that the president was honored by ISIS
recalled an earlier controversy when Mr. Trump seemingly implied that
the president had some connection to the terrorist massacre of 49 people
at the Pulse nightclub in Orlando.
“He doesn’t get it, or he gets it better than anybody understands,” Mr. Trump told Fox News in June.
And the use of the president’s middle name recalled Mr. Trump’s
questioning of Mr. Obama’s faith during his crusade several years ago to
prove that Mr. Obama, who is Christian, was not born in the United
States.
Mr.
Trump also found himself in an awkward camera framing immediately after
criticizing the Clinton campaign for the appearance of Seddique Mir
Mateen, the father of the Pulse gunman, at Mrs. Clinton’s campaign event
this week. “Wasn’t it terrible when the father of the animal that
killed these wonderful people in Orlando was sitting with a big smile on
his face right behind Hillary Clinton?” Mr. Trump said.
Yet
sitting behind Mr. Trump was Mark Foley, a former Republican
congressman who resigned after being confronted with sexually explicit
messages he had sent to underage congressional pages. Mr. Trump seemed
not to be aware of the disgraced former congressman’s presence as he
tried to cast doubt on the Clinton campaign’s account that it had not
known who Mr. Mateen was. “When you get those seats, you sort of know
the campaign,” Mr. Trump said.
The boisterous rally here was a marked change from his rally earlier on
Wednesday in Virginia, where a relatively subdued Mr. Trump promised he
would be the best candidate to save the coal industry. He also said his
remarks on Tuesday, in which he seemed to suggest that “Second Amendment people”
could take matters into their own hands if Mrs. Clinton were elected,
had been misconstrued. “They can take a little story that isn’t a story
and make it into a big deal,” he said.
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