Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has said the “Second Amendment people” – gun owners or those backing gun rights – could stop his Democratic rival Hillary Clinton from winning the White House and picking new US Supreme Court justices.
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Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump holds a campaign rally in Wilmington, North Carolina where he discussed the important of America’s second amendment on Tuesday (August 9).
“It’s called the power of unification – Second Amendment people have wonderful spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power”, Trump adviser Jason Miller said in the statement.
Essentially, Miller is saying Trump was urging Second Amendment defenders to show their displeasure with their votes this fall – not with the guns.
The Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, which has endorsed Clinton, said Trump was encouraging gun violence “based on conspiracy theory about Hillary Clinton”.
“This is simple – what Trump is saying is risky”, read a statement from campaign manager Robby Mook.
Clinton campaign manager Robby Mook said in a statement, “This is simple-what Trump is saying is unsafe”.
Democratic Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy took it a step further and called Trump’s remarks “an assassination threat” on Twitter.
The Clinton campaign called this remark unsafe, and the Trump team is claiming he meant gun rights advocates would vote against Clinton.
“It’s called the power of unification – 2nd Amendment people have wonderful spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power”, read a statement, titled “Trump Campaign Statement Against Dishonest Media”, from senior communications adviser Jason Miller.
“Americans find themselves asking whether Donald Trump has called for the assassination of Hillary Clinton”, The New Times editorial said.
The pro-Clinton group Priorities USA blasted out an email with the subject line: “Donald Trump Just Suggested That Someone Shoot Hillary Clinton”. “If Hillary gets to put her judges. right now, we’re tied – you see what’s going on”.
The parents said Ms Clinton blamed the attack on a controversial YouTube video mocking the Islamic prophet Mohammed, but later denied making those statements.
In fact, the Secret Service tweeted: “The Secret Service is aware of the comments made earlier this afternoon”.
“This is a political movement”, Trump said.
The 50 prominent national security officials said in their letter on Monday that Trump would be “the most reckless president in American history”.
Trump later said his remarks were misinterpreted.
He added that this latest bout of negative media attention only means that “most of the press is in the tank for Hillary Clinton”.
Democratic strategist Paul Begala said that, while reasonable people were right to be incensed by Trump’s statement, he anxious about how someone who is unreasonable would take it.
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Several of Trump’s supporters came out in his defense.
