Donald Trump has been saying for months that Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton wants to “abolish the Second Amendment”, but now the Republican presidential nominee has gone even further.
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He said on Tuesday at a rally in North Carolina: “By the way if she gets to pick her judges, nothing you can do, folks”.
“I’m not here to repeal the Second Amendment”, she said in her Democratic National Convention speech.
The Second Amendment provides a constitutional right to citizens to own firearms.
Appearing on CNN, Pierson pointed to a “clarification” statement released by the campaign shortly after the remarks. But Tuesday’s comments knocked the campaign off-message once again. “A person seeking to the be president of the United States should not suggest violence in any way”, he said.
“But I tell you what, that will be a terrible day”.
“It’s called the power of unification”, Jason Miller, a Trump campaign spokesman, said in an email. “Unstable people with powerful guns and an unhinged hatred for Hillary are listening to you, @realDonaldTrump”. “I don’t know. But I’ll tell you what”.
Donald Trump’s running mate campaigned Monday night in Council Bluffs, Iowa, in a convention center where the young woman’s college graduation ceremony was held.
By day’s end, Trump was drawing criticism on several fronts, another chapter in a campaign marked by bitterness and partisanship.
The signatories, some of whom worked for more than one Republican president, included former Central Intelligence Agency director Michael Hayden, who also headed the National Security Agency; former Homeland Security secretary Michael Chertoff; former director of National Intelligence John Negroponte; and two former USA trade representatives, Carla Hills and Robert Zoelick.
Hayden added: “You’re not just responsible for what you say”.
In 2010, Nevada Senate candidate Sharron Angle caused a major controversy when she said, “If this Congress keeps going the way it is, people are really looking toward those Second Amendment remedies and saying my goodness what can we do to turn this country around?”
The Clinton campaign and other Trump opponents rejected Trump campaign’s explanation and blamed the GOP nominee for suggesting violence as a possible means of preventing Clinton from appointing judges if she is elected president. Speaking to an audience in Wilmington, North Carolina, Trump said his supporters could use the Second Amendment of the United States Constitution to defend that very same amendment.
It’s not the first time suggestions of violence have become part of the campaign. He came under fire from within his party for belatedly endorsing fellow Republicans in re-election races and a prolonged clash with the parents of fallen Muslim American Army captain Humayun Khan. “Despicable”, House Democrat David Cicilline posted on Twitter along with footage of Trump’s remarks. “It’s an assassination threat, seriously upping the possibility of a national tragedy & crisis”, U.S. Senator Chris Murphy, a Democrat, said in a tweet.
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I’m not here to repeal the 2nd Amendment.
