Ben Carson called the mass shooting in San Bernardino, California on Wednesday a “hate crime” and GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump called for a moment of silence at the beginning of his Virginia rally to honor the victims.
“This is when we appreciate our great police and our law enforcement. Remember that. Remember that,” Trump said Wednesday night in Manassas, Virginia. “They don’t get enough credit, they should get it and you’re always going to have some bad apples you see it on television.”
Trump said the police did “one hell of a job.”
“When you see these shootouts, I can tell you one thing I don’t want to do it, you don’t want to do it, so we want to thank the police and law enforcement, they’re unbelievable people,” he said. “A lot of people killed and in honor of those people and the victims generally let’s have a moment of silence please.”
Earlier in the afternoon, Carson said that the country must “be able to combat these things,” though he did not outline specific plans to reduce gun violence.
“Look at what happened, again another hate crime in San Bernardino today,” Carson said in a news conference in South Carolina. “At least 14 people killed. When less than a week ago we had the shooting in Colorado. And then look at all the things that are going on around the world. ISIS and groups like this. Just hatred and evil. And we need to be able to combat these things because otherwise we will melt into despair. And that’s not who we are. This is America.”
Asked to expand on his use of the term “hate crime,” Carson said: “Well it’s hard to imagine that you would shoot a bunch of people if you didn’t hate them, right? You don’t do that to people you love.”
Just days ago Carson had condemned the shooting at a Planned Parenthood clinic in Colorado, too, calling it “an act of extreme hatred and violence.”
