Just hours before her address, Trump unleashed another round of attacks on President Barack Obama, calling him the “founder” of the Islamic State militant group – and Clinton, its co-founder.
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Hillary Clinton said Wednesday that she interpreted her opponent’s comment about gun-rights advocates, seen by many as an indistinct reference to political assassination, as his “casual inciting of violence” and “the latest in a long line of casual comments from Donald Trump that cross the line”.
For Trump, the next opportunity to shift themes was to come Wednesday when he holds a pair of rallies in Abington, Virginia, and in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
‘Let me say something about, what I think is a critical difference between my opponent and myself: words matter, my friends.
That comment was immediately slammed by critics on the left, and some on the right, as a call for Clinton to be assassinated – even if it was intended as a joke. But his remarks were quickly eclipsed by the latest in a series of controversial statements which Trump has spent much of past two weeks trying to clarify.
Trump Texas fundraising co-chair Gaylord Hughey called the interpretation of his remark as condoning violence “ridiculous” and “ludicrous”.
At a rally in Wilmington, North Carolina Tuesday, Trump told the crowd, “Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish, the Second Amendment”.
Then said she was “humbled” and “moved” by a growing list of Republicans who were joining her campaign and rejecting Trump, choosing their country first over their political party. Clinton said the remark was a “casual inciting of violence” that shows Trump lacks the temperament to be commander in chief.
Trump again got embroiled in a political firestorm on Tuesday after suggesting that supporters of gun rights could take action against Clinton if Clinton wins the election.
Here’s TIME’s cover story on Donald Trump (“Inside Donald Trump’s Meltdown) and a transcript of the interview”. From a legal standpoint, however, she believes his words are protected under the First Amendment. “I took it as, ‘People who have the weapons, people who want to keep their weapons, you might want to make sure that Hillary is not in office, so that you can keep your weapons.’ That’s what I heard”.
” MR TRUMP, in an apparent reference to Mrs Clinton’s deleted e-mails”.
“In North Carolina and every other place to be honest, they have ripped businesses from your guts”, he said.
“I do not like Trump, but I thought it was probably a joke”.
Rather questioned whether or not Trump had actually broken the law with his comment, asking “If any other citizen had said this about a presidential candidate, would the Secret Service be investigating?” The Secret Service investigates all threats against the lives of presidential candidates.
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NBC’s Jane Timm asks: Is there anything Trump can’t say?
