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Trump Posts Update On Call With Saudi King After Saudi National Opens Fire At Pensacola Base

   DailyWire.com
U.S. President Donald Trump (L) and Saudi Arabia's King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud (R) attend the Arabic Islamic American Summit at King Abdul Aziz International Conference Center in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on May 21, 2017. (Photo by Bandar Algaloud / Saudi Kingdom Council / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images)
Bandar Algaloud / Saudi Kingdom Council / Handout/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Authorities say the man responsible for a mass shooting at a naval air station in Pensacola on Friday morning is a Saudi national who was attending flight school at the base. A few hours after the shooting, which officials say they are investigating as a potential terror attack, Saudi Arabia’s King Salman bin Abdulaziz Al Saud called President Trump to disavow the suspect’s “barbaric” actions.

Just before 7 a.m. on Friday morning, a gunman (whose name is here withheld according to Daily Wire policy on naming mass shooters) opened fire in a classroom in the center of the campus of Pensacola’s Naval Air Base. The suspect wounded ten people, three of whom died, before he was shot dead by sheriff’s deputies.

Amid reports that the shooter was a Saudi national, Trump tweeted out statements on the latest developments, including his conversations with Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and with Saudi Arabia’s King Salman.

“Just received a full briefing on the tragic shooting at NAS Pensacola in Florida, and spoke to [Gov. DeSantis],” Trump tweeted a few hours after the attack Friday. “My thoughts and prayers are with the victims and their families during this difficult time. We are continuing to monitor the situation as the investigation is ongoing.”

Trump then retweeted a post from Florida Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz providing updates on the situation. Gaetz has been giving the public updates on the situation throughout the day, including reports that the suspect was allegedly a “Saudi Arabian military official.”

 

About two hours later, Trump posted a pair of tweets summarizing his call with King Salman, who condemned the individual who committed the heinous crime and expressed his sympathy for the victims and their families.

“King Salman of Saudi Arabia just called to express his sincere condolences and give his sympathies to the families and friends of the warriors who were killed and wounded in the attack that took place in Pensacola, Florida,” Trump wrote. “The King said that the Saudi people are greatly angered by the barbaric actions of the shooter, and that this person in no way shape or form represents the feelings of the Saudi people who love the American people.”

Along with appearing on news outlets to discuss the shooting, Rep. Gaetz posted a video message Friday citing reports that the shooter was a Saudi Arabian military official and calling for a more thorough vetting process for officials from other countries that could similarly pose a risk to Americans.

“Major news organizations are now reporting the information that we began to learn earlier this morning that it was a Saudi Arabian military official in Pensacola, in our community for training, who committed these murderous acts and this terrible, terrible violence at NAS Pensacola,” says Gaetz in the video post (below). “I think it’s important for us to know a little bit about why Saudi Arabian officials are in our community.”

“Training is a critical part of the mission that we engage in in NAS Pensacola,” he continues. “One way that we leverage that training is to ensure that our allies around the world are capable and familiar with U.S. systems, that they’re comfortable working with U.S. officers, and that we have an interoperability in our lexicon and in the way we engage in battle.”

“This event represents a serious failure in the vetting process and in the way in which we invite these people into our community,” he asserts. “So today, as we learn more as the investigation continues to unfold … I’m going to be very active in working with the Department of Defense and the Department of State to ensure that we have extreme vetting for the people that come into our country on our bases and in our communities.”

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