President Barack Obama said Monday that
the man who killed dozens at an Orlando gay nightclub was “an
example of homegrown extremism.”
Described as the deadliest mass
shooting on American soil, 49 people died and 53 were injured when
Omar S. Mateen, 29, opened fire at the Pulse nightclub.
Speaking from his Oval Office, Obama
said that Mateen “was inspired by various extremist information
that was disseminated over the Internet.”
“We see no clear evidence that he was
directed externally. It does appear that at the last minute he
announced allegiance to ISIL. … As far as we can tell right now,
this is certainly an example of the kind of homegrown extremism that
all of us have been so concerned about for a very long time.”
“Countering this extremist ideology
is increasing going to be just as important as making sure that we
are disrupting more extensive plots engineered from the outside,”
he added.
Obama is scheduled to visit Orlando on
Thursday.