Trump, Clinton Face Off Over Orlando Shooting

Understanding the tenor of the 2016 presidential campaign simply requires listening to candidates' words in the hours following the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history and the most egregious act of terror on American soil since Sept. 11.

In dueling speeches Monday, both parties' presumptive candidates showcased their response to national tragedy.

One day after the Orlando gunman killed 49 people and injured more than 50, Democrat Hillary Clinton stuck to her campaign's "greater together" theme while strengthening her language about who and what the country's up against. She spoke in measured tones and laboriously picked through each word.

"The murder of innocent people always breaks our hearts, scares us, and makes us furious. Now we have to steel our resolve and respond. That's what I want to talk about — how we respond," she told a crowd in Cleveland. "The Orlando terrorist may be dead, but the virus that poisoned his mind remains very much alive and we must attack it with clear eyes, steady hands, unwavering determination and pride in our country and our values. I have no doubt, I have no doubt, we can meet this challenge if we meet it together."

Republican presumptive nominee Donald Trump resurrected a divisive proposal from early in his campaign: enact a ban on Muslims entering the country. He was strident, occasionally rambling and - above all else — clearly angry.

"Although the pause [in immigration] is temporary, we must find out what is going on. We have to do it. It will be lifted, this ban, when we as a nation are in a position to properly and perfectly screen these people coming into this country," Trump said in a New Hampshire appearance just over an hour after Clinton's speech. "We need to tell the truth also about how radical Islam is coming to our shores - and it's coming. With these people, folks, it's coming."

Trump didn't mention that such a policy would not have kept the Orlando gunman out of the United States. He was born in New York.

Also at odds was the way each candidate politicized the issue — or pretended not to.

"Today is not a day for politics," Clinton's speech began.

And yet, it was.

Although she might not have mentioned Trump by name, Clinton's speech was littered with subtle nods, sideways swipes and outright jabs at her likely opponent in this November's general election.

She quoted former President George W. Bush and called for a return to the post-9/11 days when Americans of all political stripes worked together in times of tragedy. Without uttering his name, she referenced Trump's proposals to increase surveillance of Muslim Americans and immigration bans.

"That's wrong, and it's also dangerous," she said. "It plays right into the terrorists' hands."

When it came to attacking his opponent by name, Trump felt no such compunction.

He argued Clinton, in lockstep with Obama, has supported an immigration policy that allows Muslims to enter the country. By his logic, she thereby supports admitting people whose radical ideologies include the oppression of women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people.

"Who is really a friend of women and the LGBT community?" he demanded.

The two speeches contrasted most starkly in their take on Muslim citizens.

Clinton, like the president, narrowly tailored her language. She condemned violence against or isolation of "the vast majority of Muslims who love freedom and hate terror." Trump cast a far wider net, saying "Muslims must work with us," then quickly added that those who do know of potential radicalization and fail to report "will have to have consequences."

Trump also continued down a path he embarked on shortly after news of the attacks first surfaced — a call to use the phrase "radical Islamic terrorism." It's a phrase the president has categorically rejected for dignifying what he has called a "perversion" of the Muslim faith by ISIS.

"They have put political correctness above common sense, above your safety and above all else. I refuse to be politically correct," he said to applause and scattered cheers. "The days of deadly ignorance will end, and they will end soon if I'm elected."

In general, Clinton has followed Obama's guide in studiously avoiding that particular phrase, despite using the term "radical jihadist" on Monday. Trump claims this shows she "has no clue, in my opinion, what radical Islam is. ... She is in total denial."

The two approaches in light of tragedy offer a window into how the candidates will behave and the tacts they'll take if elected. What remains to be seen is which tone resonates most with voters, particularly if issues of national security and domestic terrorism remain in the spotlight heading into this November's elections.

>> Photos via Gage Skidmore via Flickr / Creative Commons

>> This story has been edited from its original version, updated at 5:45 p.m. ET