Hillary Clinton visits Pulse Nightclub, meets with victims families

On Friday, Hillary Clinton made an emotional visit to Pulse Nightclub in Orlando after meeting with victims’ families and community leaders earlier in the day.

Clinton visited the makeshift memorial at the site alongside Orlando mayor Buddy Dyer and state Sen. Bill Nelson. Together, they added a bouquet of white roses to the continually growing collection of tributes that line the site.

Beforehand, Clinton met with the families of the victims of the June 12 mass shooting just before meeting with local community leaders for a roundtable discussion about the attack and the work that needs to be done to protect those groups most affected by it.

“I’m really here to listen to what your experiences have been,” Clinton said during the meeting.

“We need to acknowledge and be very clear who this attack targeted,” Clinton continued. “The Latino LGBT community by any measure was the community that was the most severely impacted by this terrible attack.”

“It is still dangerous to be LGBT in America. It is an unfortunate fact but one that needs to be said.”

In addition to Clinton, the group included Equality Florida’s Carlos Guillermo-Smith and Ida Eskamani, Imam Muhammad Musri, president of the Islamic Society of Central Florida, Terry DeCarlo, of The Center and Orlando SWAT Capt. Mark Canty.

After her statement, those assembled commended Clinton for not politicizing the event and for allowing the community time to grieve before coming to pay her respects. As Orlando city commissioner Patty Sheehan put it, “Thank you for…waiting until we were ready.”

“We have a lot of work ahead of us – and I am very much looking forward to hearing from the panelists who are with us who represent a fraction of the community that has responded so lovingly. And I will do everything I can, both in this campaign, but after it, to stand with you and to support you and to try to promote the kinds of changes that will prevent this from happening to other people, other families and other communities in the future,” Clinton said.