Several hours after the horrific mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas, Nevada, law enforcement officials were still searching for what motivated the shooter who killed 59 and wounded 527 people. And despite President Trump calling the shooting “pure evil” on Monday, both ABC and CBS were upset that he had yet to label the massacre as terrorism.
“The President leading a moment of silence, ordering flags flown at half-staff, and personally calling the Las Vegas sheriff,” prefaced ABC Senior White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega during World News Tonight. “But was this terrorism? The White House won't say.”
Vega played a clip of herself asked White Press Secretary Sarah Sanders about that very point: “The White House won't say. Does the President believe what happened amounts to an act of domestic terrorism?”
“We are still in a fact-finding mission. It would be premature to weigh in on something like that before we have any more facts,” Sanders explained.
Meanwhile, on CBS Evening News, Anchor Anthony Mason teased an upcoming report about Trump’s reaction to the shooting by pointing out the same thing. “Coming up next on the CBS Evening News, the President calls the attack “pure evil” but does not label it terrorism.”
It’s hypocritical of them to demand that Trump call it terrorism with no facts regarding a possible motive made public yet because they were usually a part of the same group that chastised him when he tweeted after attacks overseas.
That’s not to mention that terrorism, as defined by the federal government, means that the attack needed to be carried out to coerce people for a political or religious purpose. According to law enforcement officials, the shooter had no ties to international terrorist groups like ISIS, while according to his younger brother, he had no strong political or religious convictions.
Transcript below:
ABC
World News Tonight
October 2, 2017
6:54:04 PMDAVID MUIR: Next tonight here, a somber President Trump addressing the nation today, calling the massacre here in Las Vegas an act of pure evil. Here's ABC's Senior White House Correspondent Cecilia Vega.
[Cuts to video]
CECILIA VEGA: In his address to the nation today, President Trump striking a somber tone.
DONALD TRUMP: It was an act of pure evil.
VEGA: He never said the gunman's name, instead focusing on the victims and survivors.
TRUMP: We are praying for you, and we are here for you, and we ask God to help see you through this very dark period.
VEGA: And he called for unity.
TRUMP: It is our love that defines us today, and always will, forever.
VEGA: The President leading a moment of silence, ordering flags flown at half-staff, and personally calling the Las Vegas sheriff.
TRUMP: The fast response that you gave saved hundreds of additional people from being killed.
VEGA: But was this terrorism? The White House won't say. Does the President believe what happened amounts to an act of domestic terrorism?
SARAH SANDERS: We are still in a fact-finding mission. It would be premature to weigh in on something like that before we have any more facts.
[Cuts to video]
VEGA: And the President heads to Las Vegas on Wednesday, where he will thank first responders. He will meet with victims family members, but first, that trip to Puerto Rico to survey the damage there, David, that happens tomorrow.
