President Barack Obama Addresses Nation Over Orlando Shootings (UPDATED)
President Barack Obama made brief remarks this afternoon regarding the Orlando shootings. Very little new information was revealed, and the decidedly tired-looking Obama took no questions on the matter.
Fresh from a meeting with FBI investigators, Obama said the full motivation of shooter Omar Saddiqi Mateen isn't fully known -- in other words, it may be unclear at this hour how Mateen may be connected to terrorist organizations.
Obama said the attacks at the gay night club delivered a heartbreaking blow to the LGBTQ community: "The place where they were attacked is more than a nightclub, it is a place of solidarity and empowerment, where people have come together to raise awareness, to speak their minds and to advocate for their civil rights," said Obama. "So this is a sobering reminder that attacks on any American, regardless of race, ethnicity, religion or sexual orientation, is an attack on all of us..."
He called for prayer in the aftermath and called for Americans to band together in this time of grief. Unlike some previous addresses regarding mass shootings, Obama did not deliver extensive gun control rhetoric, saying only that guns remain very easy to get, and Americans "have to decide if that's the kind of country we want to be."
He also praised the response of local law enforcement in Orlando, noting that they kept he situation from being worse.
ORIGINAL POST: In the aftermath of the Orlando shootings, President Barack Obama is expected to speak to the nation shortly. He was scheduled to start at 11:30 a.m., Mountain Time. We'll detail his remarks here.