JAKE TAPPER (HOST): I reached out to the Trump campaign hours ago for clarification as to what specifically Mr. Trump was suggesting about the president. I have not yet heard back. Now, the interpretation from the reliably pro Trump New York Post was the following, quote, “Trump: Maybe Obama Sympathizes With The Terrorists.” That can't be, though, right? I mean, he just revoked the press credentials of the Washington Post for making that exact same interpretation. So he could not possibly be saying that the president of the United States who sent thousands of US troops, not to mention drones all over the world to kill radical Islamic terrorists, that he secretly sympathizes with these twisted, homicidal Islamic psychopaths. I reached out to a conservative friend of mine who is voting for Mr. Trump. He says he thinks Trump is suggesting that President Obama, because of his, quote, “leftist politics or sympathy to Islam in general” is reluctant to identify the radical strain of Islam as the cause of this horror. Perhaps, that seems to me, a rather charitable interpretation given Mr. Trump’s comments that Obama, quote, ”gets it better than anybody understands," but the truth is I don't know for sure what Mr. Trump was suggesting because it was an allusion to a more nefarious motivation that Mr. Trump would not specify. Now look, on a day like today it’s tough to get too worked up about anything other than that which is immediately relevant to the heinous terrorist attack from Sunday morning. But if Mr. Trump was not suggesting what so many folks, including his fans thought he was, he should probably clarify it because an accusation by a major party presidential nominee, that an American president sympathizes with these religious fanatics who bring nothing but hatred and death throughout the world and killed in cold blood 49 innocent people just a few hours ago in Orlando, well, that accusation would be ridiculous and, frankly, truly offensive.
