GOP rips Obama after Dallas shooting 'Now is definitely not the time to get political,' Ben Carson says.

President Barack Obama's political opponents quickly piled on after news emerged that a gunman had killed five police officers in Dallas, assailing him for his focus on gun control, his overseas trip, and his treatment of the law enforcement community.

Speaking to reporters earlier in Warsaw, Poland, where he is attending a NATO meeting, Obama on Friday called the Dallas shooting a "wrenching reminder of the sacrifices" law enforcement makes for the American people, but also remarked "that when people are armed with powerful weapons, unfortunately it makes it more deadly and more tragic, and in the days ahead we are going to have to consider those realities as well."


Ben Carson lit into Obama within the first hour after his remarks.

"Now is definitely not the time to get political," the former Republican presidential candidate and Donald Trump surrogate told "Fox & Friends" when asked about Obama's comments. "Now is the time to use logic and ask ourselves, why do we have a Constitution? Why do we have a Second Amendment? They’re always saying you don't need a high-powered weapon to hunt deer. The Constitution is not about deer hunting. It's about people being able to defend themselves from an overly aggressive government or an external invasion."

Asked what he would say as president, Carson said he would ask the country to "imagine 24 or 48 hours with no police. What would your life be like?"

"Yes, there are some bad apples and, yes, we will find ways to deal with them but in no way do we indict the entire police force," Carson said.

Addressing the killing of five officers, in addition to seven more wounded, Carson noted that "there are terror cells" and "professional agitators all over our country looking for opportunities."

"And these opportunities do arise. They will continue to arise because, you know, there are bad apples in the police force like there are bad apples in everything. There are bad surgeons," the retired neurosurgeon said. "But the vast majority of surgeons are wonderful people. So, you know, these opportunities will continue to happen and they will continue to do these things. But I guess the real issue is, you know, the president's going to start saying, see, gun control."

Rep. Pete Sessions (R-Texas), whose district encompasses parts of northeast Dallas, affirmed his support for Trump and criticized the man currently in the White House for "weakness" and for being abxentabsence from the United States.

"We'll go with great resolve to Cleveland. Donald Trump will be there and be nominated and we must stand and be strong about making America great again," Sessions told MSNBC's "Morning Joe." "If we are weak at home, we are weak around the world and this is an example of a weakness when our president goes overseas and has a terrible tragedy like this is an idea why we've got to solve ourself."

Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, meanwhile, told Fox News that he would have preferred Obama react to the shootings more like President Ronald Reagan assuaged the nation following the Challenger space disaster in 1986.

"He doesn't need to inject the divisive arguments like gun control at a time of great grief for the nation. And he ought to do for us what Ronald Reagan did after the Challenger disaster," Huckabee said. "And that's remind us of what we have in common, not what separates us. And that's why I'm always so frustrated. Barack Obama has such great potential to be a leader. But on the other hand, what he ought to be doing is focusing upon those police officers and the sacrifice they made and solely on the police officers and the sacrifices of their family and leave all of the political discussions aside. There's plenty of time for that. Today there's one thing ought on the president's mind."

On the same program, Colorado Republican Senate candidate Darryl Glenn suggested that the president needs “to be very careful not to get too far ahead of the facts, but you need to be careful not to drive your policy agenda.”

“Because what you're going to do is you're going to exacerbate the issue by driving a wedge, especially a wedge between law enforcement and the people that they're there to protect,” Glenn continued, suggesting that this is “an excellent opportunity” to bring together policymakers, law enforcement and community leaders. “Because we need to grieve together because we're family members. And you need to make sure that the information you're putting out there is factual. Not policy based.”

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, widely seen as a leading contender to be Trump's vice presidential pick, told "Fox & Friends" that Obama has failed to bring the country together in his nearly eight years in office.

"Gun control is the obvious," he said. "Look, first of all, our hearts have to go out to families. The families of the police officers in Dallas. The families in Baton Rouge. The families in Minneapolis. This has been a terrible couple of days for America, and it should be a wake-up call that there's some things that are profoundly wrong in this country right now. And they deserve an honest, open conversation or it's just going to get worse."

Appearing later in the morning on Fox News, William Johnson, the executive director of National Association of Police Organizations, was asked whether law enforcement feels "increasingly under siege and targeted."

"Absolutely. It's a horrible day. It's a war on cops," Johnson responded. "And the Obama administration is the Neville Chamberlain of this war. I think their continued appeasement at the federal level with the Department of Justice, their appeasement of violent criminals, their refusal to condemn movements like Black Lives Matter, actively calling for the death of police officers, that type of thing, all the while blaming police for the problems in this country has led directly to the climate that has made Dallas possible."

Rep. Roger Williams (R-Texas) decried in a statement what he characterized as the "spread of misinformation and constant instigation by prominent leaders, including our president" who, he added, "contributed to the modern day hostility we are witnessing between the police and those they serve. As a result, today we are seeing one of the noblest professions condemned by those who could benefit the most."

Taking a more measured tone, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) laid the blame for the shooting squarely in the hands of the perpetrators, while also suggesting that Obama, along with other public officials, including himself, take a look in the mirror.

"I think all of us in public life, the president included, should re-examine everything we’ve said, everything we’ve done up to this point to see if in our public discourse we’ve contributed in any way," Rubio told reporters in Washington, adding, "I think all of us need to re-examine constantly in this country and whether it contributes to the nation moving forward or whether sometimes we're unnecessarily pitting people against each other. And I hold myself to that standard as well."

On Thursday, before the Dallas shootings, Obama tried to strike a balance as he talked about anger and grief in the African-American community after the latest killings by police and the feeling among some law enforcement officials that Obama has not always supported them.

“To be concerned about these issues is not to be against law enforcement,” he said. ”When people say black lives matter, it doesn’t mean blue lives don’t matter.”