Panelists on CNN highlighted the evolution of Hillary Clinton’s rhetoric after the San Bernardino shooting, noting Sunday that the trajectory of Clinton’s rhetoric, from gun control to terrorism, mirrors that of the Obama administration.
"Hillary Clinton is in many ways tied to President Obama's numbers. If he's up, she goes with him. If he's down, Democrats have a problem," host John King said. "Like the president, initially it was gun control. Then it got tougher."
After the attack in San Bernardino, Clinton was quicker than President Obama to admit that the shooting was an act of terror, saying Thursday that it is "becoming clearer that we are dealing with an act of terrorism." As the days passed, her calls for gun control slowly became tied to the terrorist threat.
"We cannot go on with losing 90 people a day to gun violence," Clinton said at Southern New Hampshire University on Thursday, and criticized Congress for fearing the gun lobby.
At three events since the attack, two in New Hampshire and one in Iowa, Clinton condemned Congress for failing to pass the no-fly list gun ban and called for background checks.
"On this issue where people who are too dangerous to fly in America can still buy guns in America, there should be no debate. We are not violating anyone’s rights," she said at an event later in the day Thursday.
"If you're too dangerous to fly, you're too dangerous to buy a weapon," she said that Friday in Sioux City, Iowa, and repeated a similar call at a December 3 event.
For days, Obama refused to acknowledge that the San Bernardino shooters were terrorists, instead hypothesizing that the shooting was an act of "workplace violence." He focused on gun control, referring to the attack as a part of "a pattern now of mass shootings in this country."
When the FBI confirmed that the shooting was an act of terror, Obama said that it was "possible" that the attack was "terrorist-related," but maintained the line that the attack was also "workplace-related."