(JAKARTA, Indonesia) — A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck Java island in Indonesia on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency said on Twitter that it had also measured the quake at a magnitude of 5.6. Preliminary data from the USGS had placed the quake at a magnitude of 5.4.
At least 46 people have died and about 700 have been injured, Herman Suherman, the regent of Cianjur Regency in West Java, told Indonesia’s Kompas TV at around 4 p.m. Jakarta time.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(JAKARTA, Indonesia) — A 5.6 magnitude earthquake struck Java island in Indonesia on Monday, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
At least 62 people have died as of about 7:30 p.m. local time, according to Indonesia’s National Disaster Mitigation Agency, which posted a statement online.
About 700 have been injured, Herman Suherman, the regent of Cianjur Regency in West Java, told Indonesia’s Kompas TV at around 4 p.m. Jakarta time.
Indonesia’s Meteorological, Climatological and Geophysical Agency said on Twitter that it had also measured the quake at a magnitude of 5.6. Preliminary data from the USGS had previously placed the quake at a magnitude of 5.4.
The quake struck at a depth of about 10 km, with an epicenter about 18 km southwest of Ciranjang-hilir, Indonesia, USGS said.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(MOSCOW, Idaho) — Police in Moscow, Idaho, said Sunday that other friends were in the house when a 911 call was made following the fatal stabbings of four University of Idaho students a week ago, but couldn’t say how many.
The 911 call was placed last Sunday at 11:58 a.m. reporting an unconscious person, police said. Two victims were found on the second floor and two on the third floor, according to police.
Two female surviving roommates were at the house at the time and were not hurt, Moscow Police Chief James Fry has said. Police said Friday that they don’t believe the two surviving roommates are involved in the crime, which authorities reiterated Sunday.
The 911 call was made from one of the two surviving roommates’ phones, according to police, who would not disclose who made the call but said that person was not considered the killer.
There are no suspects in custody.
The victims, who were killed in a house near campus in the early morning hours on Nov. 13 and found hours later, were identified as Ethan Chapin, 20, of Conway, Washington; Madison Mogen, 21, of Coeur d’Alene, Idaho; Xana Kernodle, 20, of Avondale, Arizona, and Kaylee Goncalves, 21, of Rathdrum, Idaho.
The coroner has identified all four victims and their cause of death as homicide by stabbing, police said Sunday.
Police have said the victims were likely sleeping at the time of the attack, and each was stabbed multiple times, citing the coroner. Some victims had defensive wounds, but there were no signs of sexual assault, police said.
University of Idaho President Scott Green on Sunday addressed safety in the wake of the horrific incident, saying they have ramped up security and are working to accommodate students who don’t feel safe on campus.
“We fully appreciate and share the frustration of our students, employees, parents and community members who continue to push for answers. While we wait for answers in the investigation, we’ve ramped up our security safety practices in our listening to students and supporting them in any way possible,” Green said.
“The police continue to inform us that they believe this was a targeted attack. But we recognize this is not good enough for some of our students who will want to complete their semester remotely until the person who committed the crime is in custody,” he continued.
“In addition to the campus-wide precautions being taken, we offer the following security, safety and security feature features in our residence halls,” Green said. “We will continue our Safe Walk available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. All residence halls are locked 24 hours a day and only accessible by students that live in the building. All guests must be accompanied by a resident of the building.”
Police on Friday also released a map and timeline of the whereabouts of the victims in the hours before the killings.
Goncalves and Mogen — lifelong best friends — were in downtown Moscow the night of Nov. 12 while Chapin and Kernodle — who were dating — were at the Sigma Chi house, police said.
At about 1:40 a.m., Goncalves and Mogen were seen on video at the Grub Truck food vendor, and then they got a ride home from a private party, arriving at 1:45 a.m., police said. Authorities said Friday that the man seen in the Grub Truck surveillance video with the victims is not believed to be involved in the crime.
Chapin and Kernodle also got home around 1:45 a.m., police said. Chapin didn’t live in the house where they were killed but was sleeping over with his girlfriend, according to his mother, Stacy Chapin.
Police are searching for leads and urge anyone who saw “suspicious behavior, has video surveillance, or can provide relevant information” to call the tip line at 208-883-7180 or email tipline@ci.moscow.id.us.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck, Izzy Alvarez and Flor Tolentino contributed to this report.
Valeria Ferraro/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(KEY WEST, Fla.) — Five migrants have died and another five are missing after a boat capsized off the coast of Florida, the US Coast Guard said in a statement.
A group of migrants was traveling in a homemade boat when it capsized 50 miles off the coast of Little Torch Key, Florida, authorities said. Winds were 30 miles per hour on Saturday and the seas were 6 to 8 feet in the swell.
The Coast Guard said nine people were rescued because they were wearing life jackets, while four died almost immediately upon capsizing and one died after the incident.
“For individuals residing in the US seeking information on a family member possibly intercepted by the Coast Guard, please contact your local government representative,” the Coast Guard said.
The Department of Homeland Security, including Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, has warned migrants not to make the journey from the central triangle countries because it is incredibly dangerous and will result in some dying.
(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — A bartender was one of the victims killed in a mass shooting at an LGBTQ+ nightclub in Colorado late Saturday night, ABC News has learned.
Five people were killed and 25 were injured after a gunman began shooting inside Club Q in Colorado Springs as soon as he walked in, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez told reporters during a news conference Sunday morning.
Police identified the suspect as Anderson Lee Aldrich, 22. At least two people, whom authorities described as heroes, then confronted Aldrich and fought with him, which saved more lives, police said.
At least two guns, including a long one, were recovered from the scene, police said. The shooting is now being investigated as a hate crime.
Here’s what we know about the victims so far.
Daniel Davis Aston, 28
Daniel Davis Aston was one of the victims who lost their lives in the shooting at Club Q on Saturday, his mother, Sabrina Aston, told ABC News.
Sabrina Aston said her youngest son was the youngest of the family, calling him amazing. She said he moved to Colorado from Oklahoma, where he was able to make friends quickly, largely because of his personality.
ABC News’ Julia Jacobo and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — With winter fast approaching, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it’s never too late to get a flu shot and a COVID-19 booster. Now, doctors are sharing tips on how to make your vaccine go the extra mile.
According to several studies, sleeping well after vaccination, getting vaccinated in the morning and not pre-medicating with new over-the-counter medications could help boost immunity.
But the most important thing, doctors say, is to get vaccinated no matter the circumstances because vaccines will still work to dramatically reduce the risk of severe illness. For those who are able, doctors say there are a few tricks that may give an extra small immunity boost after a shot.
Sleep is associated with a stronger immune system. One study showed that sleep after Hepatitis A vaccination doubled the number of immune cells formed in response to the vaccine.
“People with chronic sleep loss have higher levels of inflammation and are relatively more immunosuppressed,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease physician at the University of California San Francisco. “Getting a vaccine regardless of sleep is better than not getting a vaccine at all.”
One 2012 study showed that those who slept less than six hours after receiving a Hepatitis B vaccination were less likely to have the appropriate immune response. A similar study showed that inadequate sleep after an influenza vaccine also resulted in an inadequate immune response. Inadequate sleep before vaccination has its risks. Shorter sleep duration two nights before influenza vaccination has been shown to lead to poorer immune response that lasts months afterward.
Time of day for vaccination also influences immunity; those who got vaccinated in the morning had greater immunity. One study showed that getting COVID-19 vaccines in the morning led to a stronger immune response than those who received afternoon vaccinations.
Humans have a natural internal clock and levels of our immune cells vary in activity throughout the course of the day.
“Get a vaccine when it is most convenient to you. Immune cells circulate around the body 24/7. But if you can prioritize getting it in the morning, you may get a small advantage,” said Chin-Hong.
If you do not take over-the-counter medications regularly, be cautious about taking them before a vaccine. Some people take anti-fever medications like ibuprofen, acetaminophen and aspirin before a shot.
“Both Tylenol and NSAIDs like ibuprofen may prevent inflammation and theoretically reduce the ability of the immune system to respond to a vaccine,” said Chin-Hong.
Some prior studies found that taking these medications before getting a vaccination may reduce immune response.
All things considered, “the most important thing is to get the vaccines,” said Chin-Hong.
Alicia Zellmer, MD, and Joy Liu, MD, are resident physicians in internal medicine and members of the ABC News Medical Unit.
(WASHINGTON) — New York Rep. Hakeem Jeffries, the likely incoming House Democratic leader, said Sunday that he anticipates his party will be united in a new minority even amid policy disagreements.
Jeffries, a longtime allay of outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has sometimes been at odds with members of his party’s left flank. However, in an appearance on CNN’s “State of the Union,” he boasted of strong relationships with both liberals and moderates.
“Well, I have great respect for Rep. [Alexandria] Ocasio-Cortez and every single member of the House Democratic caucus, from Rep. Ocasio-Cortez to Rep. Josh Gottheimer, my good friend, and all points in between,” Jeffries told CNN’s Jake Tapper.
“The thing about us, Jake, is that while we can have some noisy conversations at times about how we can make progress for the American people, what we have seen is that under the leadership of Speaker Pelosi, Steny Hoyer, Jim Clyburn, we have constantly been able to come together, time and time again,” Jeffries added, referring to the outgoing House majority leader and majority whip.
In the past, Jeffries has argued that others in the party enforce a difference between “progressive Democrats and hard-left democratic socialists,” and he has embraced the former label.
“I’m a Black progressive Democrat concerned with addressing racial and social and economic injustice with the fierce urgency of now. That’s been my career, that’s been my journey, and it will continue to be as I move forward for however long I have an opportunity to serve. There will never be a moment where I bend the knee to hard-left democratic socialism,” he told The Atlantic last year.
Jeffries, who was first elected in 2012, is currently running unopposed to be leader of the House Democrats after Pelosi, Hoyer and Clyburn all said last week they wouldn’t seek to reclaim their positions in the conference’s leadership team. (Clyburn is running for the No. 4 spot in the intraparty elections set for Nov. 30.)
In a speech on Thursday, Pelosi, who like her deputies has been in leadership for years, hailed a “new generation.”
Looking to a House GOP majority come January, Jeffries said on CNN that he would be open to working with Republicans but would not hesitate to confront what he labeled as “extremism.”
House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy has promised to pursue oversight of the Biden White House while challenging Democrats’ past two years of unified rule. Jeffries told Tapper that while he hadn’t “recently” spoken with McCarthy, “I do have, I think, a much warmer relationship with Steve Scalise,” the minority whip.
McCarthy, appearing on Fox News on Sunday, said his slim majority will need to be unified to achieve its priorities, including focusing on China and the southern border.
“We need to work as one because if that continues to move forward, all the investigations we asked to happen, the securing the border, the stopping the movement, none of that can the move forward,” he said.
Jeffries, for his part, said on CNN: “[I] look forward to working whenever and wherever possible … with the entire House Republican conference and the leadership team to find common ground to get things done for everyday Americans to make progress.”
“But, of course, we will fiercely and vigorously oppose any attempts at Republican overreach and any Republican extremism,” he said. “And I’m hopeful that the Republican leadership will take lessons away from the rejection of extremism by the American people all across the land, and not double- and triple-down on it in the next Congress.”
(WASHINGTON) — Just days after Donald Trump announced his third bid for the White House, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan denounced the twice-impeached former president’s political future, calling himself a “Never-Again-Trumper.”
“I’m proud of the accomplishments [during the Trump administration] — of the tax reform, the deregulation and criminal justice reform — I’m really excited about the judges we got on the bench, not just the Supreme Court, but throughout the judiciary,” Ryan told ABC News’ chief Washington correspondent and “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl in an exclusive interview that aired Sunday. “But I am a Never-Again-Trumper. Why? Because I want to win, and we lose with Trump. It was really clear to us in ’18, in ’20 and now in 2022.”
While Republicans secured the House with a razor-thin majority, they failed to flip the Senate. The “red wave” that was widely predicted this midterm season did not come to pass. Ryan put the blame directly on the former president.
“I personally think the evidence is really clear,” Ryan said in his first Sunday show interview since he left office in 2019. “The biggest factor was the Trump factor … I think we would have won places like Arizona, places like Pennsylvania, New Hampshire had we had a typical, traditional conservative Republican, not a Trump Republican.”
“With Trump, we lose,” he added.
“We lost the House in ’18,” Ryan continued. “We lost the presidency in ’20. We lost the Senate in ’20. And now in 2022 we should have and could have won the Senate. We didn’t. And we have a much lower majority in the House because of that Trump factor.”
During the interview, Ryan pointed to the Trump-endorsed candidates’ lackluster performance during the midterms. At least 30 of the former president’s hand-picked candidates, including some of the most notable nominees in various states, lost in their general elections after winning their primaries.
“He can get his people through the primaries, but they can’t win general elections,” Ryan said. “We get past Trump, we start winning elections. We stick with Trump, we keep losing elections. That’s just how I see it.”
And if Trump is once again the GOP nominee for president?
“We [will] probably likely lose the White House,” Ryan said, adding that he thinks suburban voters don’t like Trump or the candidates he endorses.
In 2016, Trump managed to hold off a crowded GOP presidential field with only a plurality of the vote in the early primary states. Despite that dynamic, Ryan said he isn’t worried that the same dynamic could play out in 2024 — that a packed field of Republicans would split the vote and once again clear the way for Trump to win the party’s nomination.
“This is my hopeful scenario,” Ryan said. “That we consolidate around somebody that is forged from this primary process capable of winning the general election, and I bet we — I bet that happens.”
Ryan remains hopeful, he said. As long as the nominee is not named Trump, he believes the Republican candidate will win the White House. He’s looking for a “Reagan 2.0.”
“I really believe a Reagan 2.0 conservative is something that will be — that the country will want, I think that our voters will want,” he said. “I think that our voters will want someone that is a good, verifiable conservative, problem solver, but also a unifier and somebody who’s not so polarizing.”
Ryan backs McCarthy on road to speakership
Republicans will have an extraordinarily slim majority come January, which means every vote in the Republican caucus will matter. Ryan believes current House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy is the person to lead the House as speaker, saying McCarthy is the “best vote counter” he’s ever worked with.
“There isn’t anybody better suited to running this conference than Kevin McCarthy,” Ryan said, endorsing his former colleague. “He’s been good for conservatives, frankly, but he’s also a person who really understands how to manage a conference.”
When Ryan was speaker, he had a much larger majority in the House than what the Republican party will have in 2023.
“No matter what bill you’re going to bring to the floor, it is almost impossible with that tight [of] a majority to have just only your party passing legislation,” Ryan said.
“Having said that, there’s nothing as unifying as a really razor-thin majority,” he continued. “It makes people realize I can’t get everything I want; I have to be a part of a team; I’m going to have to not negotiate and compromise.”
Ryan said McCarthy understands he needs the entire conference to work with him. He said McCarthy will be able to motivate the different wings within the Republican Party — from more moderate-leaning districts to the Tuesday Group to the Freedom Caucus.
Prior to the midterms, at least nine impeachment resolutions against President Joe Biden and members of his Cabinet were introduced by representatives such as Lauren Boebert, Matt Gaetz, Paul Gosar and Marjorie Taylor Greene. The basis for the resolutions ranged from the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan to the president’s son Hunter Biden’s business dealings.
“Would it be a mistake for Republicans that instead of getting the ideas you’re talking about — getting into, you know, heavy, heavy investigations?” Karl asked.
“No, they need to do oversight,” Ryan pushed back, adding that he thinks there should be some accountability with Hunter Biden and the other investigations.
“I’m a big Article 1 guy,” he continued. “What that means is I very strongly believe in the legislative branch of government conducting thorough oversight of the executive branch to hold them accountable.”
But he still thinks the Republicans need to push forward an agenda to address the problems every day Americans are facing.
“Can they chew gum and walk at the same time?” Ryan said. “Have investigations, have oversight hearings, hold the executive branch to account, and offer new ideas and solutions to our problems? Yes. That’s what Congress is supposed to do.”
“I think there are important issues in our culture that need to be litigated and we need to preserve our country’s principles, but it’s not enough to just, you know, be really good on Twitter and survive in the entertainment wing of our party,” Ryan added. “You have to offer a country solutions.”
Ryan once again charts his path forward for GOP
Ryan left office in 2019 after spending 20 years in Congress, four of which he was speaker of the House, working under both a Democratic and Republican president. But he said he’s not done trying to find solutions to America’s problems. He’s out with a new book: “American Renewal: A Conservative Plan to Strengthen the Social Contract and Save the Country’s Finances.”
“In this book, we offer very granular solutions to the big problems confronting America,” Ryan said. One of his major concerns, he said, is what he called the unsustainable debt trajectory that America is on. He said his book offers “a conservative plan to help this country get over its enormous challenges.”
Ryan acknowledged that Americans want health and retirement security, but he believes the current programs are unsustainable in the 21st century.
“Medicare trust fund goes bankrupt in this decade,” Ryan said. “The Social Security trust fund goes bankrupt in 2032.”
But Ryan, the self-proclaimed optimist, believes these problems are solvable.
“There are changes that you can make to the Social Security system today that [guarantees] people counting on this program will always have those benefits,” he said. “We’re going to have to reform these programs so that you and I and the next generation on down actually have something. That’s the kind of conversation we have to elevate our debate to I think in our federal, national politics, and I think we can because America has always gotten it right at the end of the process.”
Praise for Pelosi’s legacy
When asked about current Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi stepping down from her leadership role, Ryan complimented her and her legacy.
“Obviously, she and I usually disagree on things, but first woman Speaker — a career to be proud of,” Ryan said. “She broke a glass ceiling, and there’s a lot to be proud about there.”
Addressing the attack on the speaker’s husband, Paul Pelosi, he called it “awful” and said he’s been thinking a lot about it.
Nancy Pelosi cited one reason for her stepping down to spend more time with her family, which Ryan understood. He himself retired from political office to spend more time with his family. He now teaches economics at the University of Notre Dame, has a poverty foundation and works at the American Enterprise Institute, a center-right think tank.
A return to politics?
“You talked about the direction of the party and the direction of the country. Are we ever going to see you back in politics?” Karl asked.
“I like doing it the way I’m doing it now,” Ryan said.
When asked if he would run for president in 2024, Ryan said, “No, I mean, I’m definitely not running in 2024. I don’t think I — it just — I have presidential-sized policy ambition, but I really don’t have presidential-sized personal ambition, so I just don’t see myself doing that.”
(WASHINGTON) — Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., the chair of the House Intelligence Committee, on Sunday said he expects the incoming Republican majority will give in to its “lowest common denominator” members by pursuing decisions like removing him from his committee assignments.
In an appearance on ABC’s “This Week” Schiff was asked by co-anchor Jonathon Karl about GOP leader Kevin McCarthy’s promise to kick Schiff off the intelligence committee, to which Schiff responded that he thinks McCarthy will follow the lead of hardline lawmakers like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.
“Well, I suspect he will do whatever Marjorie Taylor Greene wants him to do. He’s a very weak leader of this conference, meaning that he will adhere to the wishes of the lowest common denominator, and if that lowest common denominator wants to remove people from committees, that’s what they’ll do,” Schiff said.
McCarthy has said that removing lawmakers like Schiff from their committee posts was a precedent set by Democrats when they and some Republicans voted to strip Greene of her committee work as punishment for her history of inflammatory and conspiratorial statements.
McCarthy has also claimed Schiff, who sits on the special House committee investigating last year’s insurrection, used his intelligence chairmanship to politicize his committee.
On “This Week,” Schiff took another view.
“It’s going to be chaos with Republican leadership. And, sadly, the crazy caucus has grown among the Republicans,” he added, noting that some newly elected Republicans representing deep-red districts are bringing firebrand reputations similar to Greene’s.
Karl also asked Schiff if he thought Attorney General Merrick Garland made the right decision by appointing a special prosecutor to oversee the Justice Department’s investigations into former President Donald Trump, who just launched a third presidential campaign.
The department is investigating both Trump’s efforts to overturn the 2020 election results and his alleged mishandling of sensitive and classified government documents after leaving office. He denies wrongdoing.
“It’s the right thing to do, and most particularly if you ensure that it won’t cause any delay,” Schiff said. “So, if the same prosecutors that have been investigating the former president and others can be moved on to the special prosecutor’s team, then there’s every reason to do it, no reason not to do it.”
Schiff’s “concern,” he said, was on the urgency of the work.
“Leading up to this point … they were very slow at the department to work up the multiple lines of effort to overturn the election. It took them a long time to get started, and the delay has already been baked in. I hope that the special prosecutor will move with alacrity,” he said.
During the final weeks of the House Jan. 6 committee’s work before the Republican majority takes over, Schiff said he and the other committee members were weighing what kind of criminal referral to make about Trump’s actions — “I think the evidence is there,” he said — and what response to make to Trump resisting their subpoena.
“We have very limited options,” Schiff said while calling Trump “cowardly.”
Schiff also lambasted Elon Musk’s decision to let Trump back onto Twitter after the former president’s account was suspended after the insurrection.
“It’s a terrible mistake, Schiff said. “The president used that platform to incite that attack on the Capitol.”
Likewise, Schiff said he disagreed with the Biden administration’s decision to back a claim of legal immunity for Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in connection with the killing of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was a U.S. resident.
“We ought to put our value on life not oil, and I think this is a tragic decision,” Schiff said.
As for 2024 and the next presidential race, Schiff said he was backing Joe Biden, who just turned 80, should Biden run for a second term: “I think he’s extremely capable … If he wants to continue, I’m for him.”
(COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.) — Five people were killed and dozens others were injured in a shooting at an LGBTQ nightclub in Colorado, officials said.
The suspect, identified as 22-year-old Anderson Lee Aldrich, allegedly began shooting as soon as he walked into Club Q in Colorado Springs late Saturday night, Colorado Springs Police Chief Adrian Vasquez told reporters during a news conference Sunday morning.
At least two people, whom authorities described as heroes, then confronted Aldrich and fought with him, which saved more lives, police said.
The first 911 call came in at 11:56 p.m. Saturday and an officer was dispatched to the scene seconds later, Lt. Pamela Castro, spokesperson for the Colorado Springs Police Department, told reporters. The first officer arrived at midnight, and the suspect was detained by 12:02 a.m., Castro said.
At least two guns, including a long gun, were recovered from the scene, police said. The shooting is being investigated as a hate crime.
In addition to the five victims who died, at least 25 people were injured, according to Colorado Springs city officials.
Aldrich was injured and remains in the hospital, police said. His release will be determined by medical personnel, Castro said.
UCHealth Memorial Hospital North in Colorado Springs is caring for five patients who were injured in the shooting, according to a statement from the hospital.
Patients were also taken to UCHealth Memorial Hospital Central and Centura Penrose Hospital, according to the Colorado Springs Fire Department.
Officials are in the process of identifying the victims, Vasquez said.
Club Q, on North Academy Boulevard, hosts a weekly drag show and live DJ on Saturday nights, according to its website. The club described the shooting as a “hate attack,” saying it was “devastated by the senseless attack on our community.”
The club is a safe haven for the LGBTQ community, Vasquez said, adding that he is saddened and heartbroken by the attack that took place there.
Aldrich was arrested in a June 2021 bomb threat incident after the El Paso County Sheriff’s Office was alerted that he was in possession of a homemade bomb, law enforcement officers briefed on the investigation told ABC News.
He was charged with two counts of felony menacing and three counts of first-degree kidnapping, but no explosives were found in his home, Colorado Springs radio station KRDO reported.
Colorado’s red flag law, which went into effect in 2020, allows relatives, household members and law enforcement to ask a judge to order the seizure of a gun owner’s weapons if that owner is believed to be a risk to themself or others.
It is unclear whether the law would have stopped the suspect from targeting the club, El Paso County Sheriff Bill Elder told ABC News.
Elder did not recall the circumstances surrounding Aldrich’s 2021 arrest, he said.
Colorado Gov. Jared Polis tweeted in response to the attack that he is “horrific, sickened, and devastated.”
“My heart breaks for the family and friends of those lost, injured and traumatized in this terrible shooting,” he said, before thanking the first responders who “responded swiftly” to the shooting.
“Our prayers and thoughts are with all the victims and their families and friends,” the club said in a statement posted on Facebook. “We thank the quick reactions of heroic customers that subdued the gunman and ended this hate attack.”
President Joe Biden issued a statement in the wake of the shooting, saying that “the LGBTQI+ community has been subjected to horrific hate violence in recent years,” drawing comparisons to the 2016 Pulse Nightclub shooting in Orlando.
“Places that are supposed to be safe spaces of acceptance and celebration should never be turned into places of terror and violence. Yet it happens far too often,” Biden said. “We must drive out the inequities that contribute to violence against LGBTQI+ people. We cannot and must not tolerate hate.”
Colorado Sen. John Hickenlooper described the shooting as “horrendous,” tweeting that the LGBTQ community needs to be protected from “this hate.”
Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet tweeted that he was “sending strength to those who were injured, the survivors, and Colorado’s LGBTQ community.”
“As we seek justice for this unimaginable act, we must do more to protect the LGBTQ community and stand firm against discrimination and hate in every form,” Bennett said.
“Our hearts are broken for the victims of the horrific tragedy in Colorado Springs, and their loved ones.” GLAAD President and CEO Sarah Kate Ellis said in a statement Sunday. “This unspeakable attack has robbed countless people of their friends and family and an entire community’s sense of safety. You can draw a straight line from the false and vile rhetoric about LGBTQ people spread by extremists and amplified across social media, to the nearly 300 anti-LGBTQ bills introduced this year, to the dozens of attacks on our community like this one.”
Other politicians also took to Twitter to express dismay over the attack. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., tweeted that he was “sickened and horrified” over the violence against the LGBTQ+ community.
“And devastating attacks like these will only become more common if we don’t fight back, Schiff wrote. “It must stop.”
Rep. Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., tweeted that he was “deeply saddened and angered” but the senseless hate.
“We cannot, and will not, allow hate and violence to win,” Nadler wrote.
ABC News’ Jenna Harrison, Ahmad Hemingway, Josh Margolin, Amanda Morris, Bonnie McLean, Molly Nagle and Jennifer Watts contributed to this report.
