Yesterday, this speech, to be given tonight at 8 pm, EST, was billed as a speech on the San Bernardino attack, which would have been appropriate had he given it on Friday as a reassurance leadership speech. Instead we have been told today it will include focus on gun control. We’re also seeing hints based on the comments by Martin O’Malley making us believe that Obama may try to announce some executive order here.

Here’s what he said yesterday during his weekly radio address:

It is entirely possible that these two attackers were radicalized to commit this act of terror. And if so, it would underscore a threat we’ve been focused on for years—the danger of people succumbing to violent extremist ideologies. We know that ISIL and other terrorist groups are actively encouraging people—around the world and in our country—to commit terrible acts of violence, often times as lone wolf actors. And even as we work to prevent attacks, all of us—government, law enforcement, communities, faith leaders—need to work together to prevent people from falling victim to these hateful ideologies.

More broadly, this tragedy reminds us of our obligation to do everything in our power, together, to keep our communities safe. We know that the killers in San Bernardino used military-style assault weapons—weapons of war—to kill as many people as they could. It’s another tragic reminder that here in America it’s way too easy for dangerous people to get their hands on a gun.

For example, right now, people on the No-Fly list can walk into a store and buy a gun. That is insane. If you’re too dangerous to board a plane, you’re too dangerous, by definition, to buy a gun. And so I’m calling on Congress to close this loophole, now. We may not be able to prevent every tragedy, but—at a bare minimum—we shouldn’t be making it so easy for potential terrorists or criminals to get their hands on a gun that they could use against Americans.

If ISIS is ‘actively encouraging’ to commit people to commit these acts, the actors are not ‘lone wolf’ actors, they are soldiers acting on behalf of ISIS as part of a larger war.

Since the San Bernardino terrorists were not any no-fly list, and in any event they got their rifles from someone else, how would this have stopped them? The answer is, it wouldn’t. They also are not ‘falling victim’ to a hateful ideology, they are making a choice to kill in the name of Islam. They are terrorists, and they are evil, they are not victims.

We will comment on the speech here as it goes, live and post reaction to it, i will critique in [ ]. Speech and reaction will be added updated at the top of each section.

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REACTION/COMMENT

David Tafuri, former policy advisor to Obama, who has been there in country, say Obama’s point 2, arming those on the ground has not been done, that Peshmerga seriously lack equipment, and that there’s no indication of an ending in the civil war in Syria, Obama’s point 4.

Huckabee mentions how many people have erroneously been placed on the no-fly list, including Ted Kennedy and the wife of Sen. Ted Stevens. David Nelson, of Ozzie and Harriet, was also on the list.

Republican rebuttal coming, although Rubio just delivered a pretty good rebuttal.

Rubio hitting actually every fault with the speech, and saying we need a ground force. This is a war on radical Islam. He understands the nature of the Caliphate, which Obama does not enunciate. Rubio makes good point that someone funded this, that Syed Farook wouldn’t have been able to fund this.

He also said, ‘We have no evidence that they are part of broader terrorist cell or connected to overseas’, which we have already reported is factually untrue, so his statement does nothing whatever to reassure one that he knows what he is doing.

On the whole if you consider devotion of time, between talking about San Bernardino, guns, the no fly list, and Muslims, the majority of time was spent on not discriminating against Muslims.

They didn’t drop ordinance on oil supplies so as not to harm the environment. They didn’t drop any bombs if it was at all possible a civilian might be hurt. So many of the sorties they flew came back with nothing being bombed.

Steven Hayes: These threats were in the President’s daily brief and he ignored them. It’s attempts to distract and defend his failing record.

Krauthammer: Nothing new on strategy. Distraction into gun control.

[Steven Hayes of the Weekly Standard had been placed on the no-fly list previously. So by this standard he would have lost his rights, even though he would have done nothing. There was nothing new that he said they would be doing]

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SPEECH (from bottom up)

You can tell he was reading off a teleprompter, and it was a close shot, so you couldn’t see the teleprompter.

Here’s a full transcript of the speech.

This is the gun control part of the speech:

"Congress should act to make sure no one on a 'no- fly' list is able to buy a gun." #ObamaSpeech https://t.co/GsbSS242mZ

— CNN (@CNN) December 7, 2015

Speech:

We are founded on the principle that we are equal under God and under the law.

ISIL does not speak for Islam, including patriotic Islamic Americans. We cannot push Muslims away through suspicion and hate. This is a real problem that Muslim leaders must confront. Muslim leaders must speak out against these ideas. But just as it is their responsibility, it is our responsibility to reject discrimination, to have religious tests as to who gets into the country. Muslim Americans are our friends, co-workers, sports heroes, heroes in military.

The strategy that we are using now that is how we will achieve a more sustainable victory [and it’s done nothing now].

If Congress believes we are at war, [and he doesn’t finish the sentence]

We need to make it harder to get assault weapons like the ones these people used.

I’ve asked our agencies to review the visa waiver program under which the female terrorist came into this country. [She didn’t come in under the visa waiver program, she came in under the fiancee K-1 visa program, a program he streamlined and made easier to get in on]

We will prevail not by talking tough, but
1. by hunting down terrorist plotters. Airstrikes taking out ISIL people.
2. we will continue to provide training and equipment to those fighting on ground.
3. we’re working with friends and allies to prevent and break up plots, sharing intel. And we are working with Muslim communities to counter this ideology.
4. we are pursuing ways to end Syrian war and focus on common goal to destroy ISIL.

For seven years I have confronted this threat each and every morning in my intelligence briefings. [NO YOU HAVEN’T, you’ve skipped out on more than half of them! Everything is again all about him]

We have no evidence that they are part of broader terrorist cell or connected to overseas. They subscribed to perverted form of Islam. [despite the fact that Farook was in contact with other terrorists like Mohammed Hassan, ISIS recruiter].