The New York Times editorial board took a swipe at America’s political leaders on Friday as it praised New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern for the way in which she has responded to the Christchurch mosques terror attack.
The op-ed — headlined “America Deserves a Leader as Good as Jacinda Ardern” — hailed the politician for her swift action in announcing a ban on automatic and semi-automatic weapons following the March 15 mass shootings in which an alleged white supremacist killed 50 people.
The swing of public opinion against rapid-fire weapons “stood in stark contrast to the way the National Rifle Association and its political allies in the United States have resisted any restrictions on weapons like the AR-15, the semiautomatic rifle used in several mass killings,” the board noted.
It was “only one of the areas in which Ms. Ardern showed what leadership looks like in time of crisis,” it added, recalling how she had also vowed to never say the alleged gunman’s name.
Ardern, 38, has “shown the way” in how world leaders should act following such a tragedy by uniting in “clearly condemning racism” and “sharing in the grief of the victims and stripping the haters of their weapons,” the board concluded.
American Muslims have also widely praised Ardern’s actions following the attacks. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, called the shootings a “horrible, disgraceful thing” but denied that white nationalism is a rising global threat.
Read the full editorial here.