Clinton wins final Democratic primary as US debate turns to terrorism

Hillary Clinton has won the last Democratic primary election, held in the US capital on Tuesday, officially wrapping up a long and brutal slog to secure votes for the party's nomination.

The win over Bernie Sanders was decisive at 78 percent to 21 percent, but mostly symbolic as the former top diplomat last week secured the number of delegates needed to become the Democratic nominee for president when the party holds its convention in Philadelphia next month.

With the most controversial primary season in decades drawing to a close, the attention of the nation is elsewhere as it grapples with the aftermath of the Orlando shooting, the deadliest terror attack on US soil since September 11, 2001.

Instead of hailing the end of a historic primary season, Clinton and Trump were trading explosive verbal blows and laying out dramatically different approaches for fighting terrorism in the wake of the gay club massacre in Florida.

While thousands gathered for vigils in US cities in memory of the 49 people killed, the White House hopefuls scrambled to present their proposals for keeping Americans safe.

Trump, the presumptive Republican nominee, on Monday proposed stark changes to existing immigration policy, saying that if elected he would "suspend" immigration from areas with a "proven history of terrorism".

He also suggested American Muslims were complicit in domestic attacks because they failed to "turn in the people who they know are bad".

Clinton, a former secretary of state, called on Americans to "stand together" to defeat terrorism.

But after Trump suggested in a TV interview that Obama sympathised with terrorists, Clinton unleashed a blistering anti-Trump broadside and called her rival's approach "dangerous" and "un-American".

"Even in a time of divided politics, this is way beyond anything that should be said by someone running for president of the United States," she told supporters in Pittsburgh.

"What Donald Trump is saying is shameful," she added. "It is yet more evidence that he is temperamentally unfit and totally unqualified to be commander in chief."

Obama strikes out over Trump plans

Also on Tuesday, President Obama gave a blistering speech attacking Trump for his comments following the shooting.

“We hear language that singles out immigrants and suggests entire religious communities are complicit in violence,” Obama said.

“Where does this stop?” Obama added, emphasising that Trump’s proposed ban on allowing Muslims to enter the US falls flat on its face when the Orlando shooter, the attackers in San Bernardino, California and Fort Hood, Texas were all perpetrated by American citizens.

“Are we going to start treating all Muslim-Americans differently? Are we going to start subjecting them to special surveillance? Are we going to start discriminating against them because of their faith?” Obama said, exasperated.

“Do Republican officials actually agree with this? Because that’s not the America we want - it doesn’t reflect our democratic ideals. It won’t make us more safe. It will make us less safe.”