Salon ran a column titled, “Did Trump Just Threaten Hillary?” In this instance, the intent is not entirely clear.
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Trump was riffing on the Second Amendment when he started drifting into the subject of Supreme Court picks. He did not address the questionable statement specifically.
However, the Trump campaign tried to rapidly control the damage, clarifying, “It’s called the power of unification – second Amendment people have unbelievable spirit and are tremendously unified, which gives them great political power”.
Clinton blasted Trump’s remarks as nothing but more rhetoric from a candidate who’s wildly unqualified to be president of the United States.
But it was already too late: CNN, which had devoted much of the morning to a negative Clinton story, after weeks of picking apart Trump errors, quickly bailed out on the Democrat’s toxic endorsement from homophobic terror-dad Seddique Mateen to instead talk about Trump and his “Second Amendment” comment.
Smith said she thought Trump was simply making a comment about the importance of gun rights and the threat posed by judges appointed by the Democratic nominee.
Another surrogate, Senator Jeff Sessions, didn’t try to explain away the remarks though.
Clinton’s campaign manager, Robby Mook, agreed. “It’s contrary to everything we believe in”.
Political commentator Eddie Zipperer, an instructor at Georgia Military College, said the criticism of Trump is in line with a campaign-long strategy of avoiding scrutiny of her own record.
And the Democratic Coalition Against Trump, a super PAC working against the former reality television star’s election, said it reached out to the FBI to demand Trump face charges under the federal statute that criminalizes threats against former presidents and their families.
This is not the first time the Trump campaign has suggested violence – In a July radio interview, Trump’s adviser on veterans’ issues, Al Baldasaro, urged that Clinton be executed by firing squad.
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It took 24 hours to remember that, for Trump, there is no normal. It’s the one that ensures that well-regulated militias have the right to bear arms.
The New York businessman was on his best behavior Monday during a big speech on the economy in Detroit, and for a few hours he looked like a normal candidate for president.
The Republican nominee’s goal? (She later claimed she was “speaking broadly… about the Constitution.”) Angle also implored people to “take Harry Reid out”.
Here are Trump’s remarks – which are actually quite brief – in their full context.
During the event, he said falsely that Clinton “essentially wants to abolish the Second Amendment”. “And everyone knows that if she’s in a position to appoint Supreme Court justices, she will do everything she can to remove the Second Amendment”.
“Hey”, hissed Twitter. “The Second Amendment is trending”.
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“And you’re not going to be able to protect yourselves, which you need – which you need. And now he’s gone”.
