Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump blamed the tragic Colorado Springs shooting on a “maniac” and rejected claims that pro-lifers are in some way responsible during an interview Sunday on NBC.
Trump told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the alleged shooter who killed three people and wounded nine more around a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood abortion facility Friday is “a sick person,” according to The Hill.
“I think it’s terrible,” Trump said. “I mean, terrible. It’s more of the same. And I think it’s a terrible thing. He’s a maniac.”
“We don’t even know the purpose. I mean, he hasn’t come out, to the best of my knowledge, with a statement as to why it happened to be at that location,” Trump continued. “This was a man who they said prior to this was mentally disturbed.”
SIGN THE NEW PLEDGE: I Pledge to Vote for a Pro-Life Candidate for President
The motives behind the shooting remain very unclear. Alleged shooter Robert Lewis Dear reportedly mentioned “baby body parts” when arrested at the scene of the crime, but he has no connections with the pro-life movement. Those who know him best say he was never interested in the issue of abortion. Dear appears to have been a lone, crazed gunman with mental health issues and previous run-ins with the law.
Trump refused to blame the shooting on pro-lifers who exposed Planned Parenthood’s callous business of harvesting and trafficking aborted babies’ body parts in a series of undercover videos.
However, he did acknowledge that many people were upset after learning about Planned Parenthood’s violent abortion practices in the undercover videos.
“Well, I will tell you there is a tremendous group of people that think it’s terrible, all of the videos that they’ve seen with some of these people from Planned Parenthood talking about it like you’re selling parts to a car,” Trump said. “I mean, there are a lot of people that are very unhappy about that.”
“I see a lot of anxiety and I see a lot of dislike for Planned Parenthood. There’s no question about that,” he added.
Trump, front-runner in the Republican primary, is the latest presidential candidate to comment on the tragic shootings. Pro-abortion Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton slammed pro-lifers after the shooting, saying people should support the abortion business rather than attack it.
President Barack Obama also commented today, saying pro-lifers should not “demonize” Planned Parenthood.
