Stop Using the Orlando Tragedy to Promote Political Agendas

Orlando, FL - "People who use the tragedy in Orlando to promote their own political agendas should be ashamed and must stop," said Mat Staver, Founder and Chairman of Liberty Counsel. As we learn more about the assailant, Omar Mateen, in the mass shooting in Orlando, we now understand he had a longstanding hatred for America. On 9/11, Mateen boarded his school bus and celebrated the horrors of that day when planes crashed into the Twin Towers. We know that during the massacre at the Pulse nightclub, he called 911 three times pledging allegiance to ISIS and to a known ISIS terrorist, Abu al-Baghdadi, and praised the Boston bombers. Department of Homeland Security agent Philip Haney revealed that Mateen frequented a mosque that has ties to terrorism. In addition, we now know that Mateen visited the Pulse nightclub a number of times and that his current wife, Noor, drove him by the club to scope it out. While saying she tried to talk him out of the massacre, she failed to report her husband to authorities. We know he visited other potential soft targets at several Walt Disney Orlando sites where many people gather. We know Mateen had been investigated by the FBI in 2013 and 2014 and was temporarily placed on a no-fly list. We know his father has very close ties with Afghanistan and is running for president of that country.