Jan Brewer rips Obama, defends Trump over Orlando responses
Jun 14, 2016, 5:38 PM | Updated: Jun 15, 2016, 11:22 am
In this Sept. 4, 2013, file photo, Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer speaks in Phoenix. Two online marketing companies are ceasing publication of ads that depict former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer as an over-the-hill divorcee who needed a "revenge makeover", Thursday, Sept. 3, 2015. (AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
(AP Photo/Ross D. Franklin, File)
PHOENIX — Former Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has ripped President Barack Obama’s response to the mass shooting at a gay nightclub in Orlando.
“The bottom line is [Obama] needs to stand up, he needs to draw the line, he needs to protect us and he needs to do what’s right for our country,” Brewer told KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Mac & Gaydos on Tuesday.
“He absolutely was pathetic this (Tuesday) morning and it was disturbing and his country is living in fear because he doesn’t show leadership.”
In the wake of the shooting, Obama has called for stricter gun control, as he has done after several other mass shootings. Brewer said he needs to do more because Americans are concerned.
“We are worried about our physical safety of ourselves and of our families,” she said. “All the president wants to do when he comes forward is talk about gun control.
“With all this that has taken place, we want to go out and buy another gun.”
The former Arizona governor called out the Obama administration for failing to protect American citizens by refusing to openly combat the spread of radical Islam.
“The American public has a right to demand to feel safe in our country… and if we know who the aggressors are and the people who have declared war on us and we don’t start fighting fire with fire than our country is gone,” Brewer said.
In addition to criticizing Obama, Brewer also said that she agrees with comments Donald Trump has made in regards to the shooter and his ethnic and religious background.
Earlier this week, Trump incorrectly stated that the shooter was from “Afghan,” although he was actually born in New York. He also intimated that, under his proposed ban of Muslim immigrants, the killer’s parents may never have gained access to the United States.
“The bottom line is that the only reason the killer was in America in the first place was because we allowed his family to come here,” Trump said in a press conference.
Despite acknowledging that the shooter was American-born, Brewer echoed Trump’s call for stricter immigration control for Muslims.
“We are at war with radical Islamic terrorists and we need to know who is coming into this country and who those people are and they need to be vetted,” Brewer said.
KTAR’s Taylor Kinnerup contributed to this story.
