Jim Herriott says he doesn’t know if Donald Trump meant to incite violence against rival Hillary Clinton when he remarked that maybe there was something gun-rights supporters could do to stop Clinton.
Advertisement
“The support he has from Republicans nearly seems obligatory rather than voluntary”, Mike Smith, a Republican voter and Reuters/Ipsos poll respondent, said of Trump’s remaining defenders.
“Hillary wants to abolish, essentially abolish the Second Amendment”, he said, referring to the piece of legislation that gun rights activists claim gives them the right to bear weapons.
Trump’s intended message was not immediately clear, but lawmakers, former national security officials and other critics expressed concern that he had advocated, possibly in jest, that Clinton or her Supreme Court nominees could be shot.
His spokeswoman told CNN Trump meant what he said.
The Trump campaign is blaming Hillary Clinton for the Republican nominee’s comments that assassination would be an option if Clinton won the presidential election.
The best moves for Mr Trump’s detractors may be withholding their endorsements, refusing to raise money for his campaign, throwing their weight behind Clinton or holding out hope that he voluntarily quits.
Trump faced backlash from media outlets that interpreted the statement as calling for violence against a candidate for the presidency.
The New York Daily News used Wednesday’s front page to call on Donald Trump to abandon his presidential campaign, and urged the Republican party to remove him if he won’t leave on his own free will. “And this year, they will be voting in record numbers, and it won’t be for Hillary Clinton, it will be for Donald Trump”, Miller said.
Mrs Clinton said that words matter and “if you are running to be president or you are president of the United States words can have tremendous consequences”. “Although the Second Amendment folks, maybe there is”.
The Clinton campaign seized on the chance to portray Trump as fatally undisciplined.
He joins a number of high-profile Republicans moving away from Trump amid a string of controversial statements. “That would be the only way to stop something like that happening, is if the NRA were able to get out there and stop these senators from approving anyone that was hostile to the Second Amendment because there’s a lot of political power there, even for Democrats”. He also argued politicians are responsible for what they say “and what people hear”.
“I think every time a Republican mentions the Second Amendment, it’s like cat nip to a liberal”, said Eric Bolling.
In a late-afternoon tweet, Trump himself denied the story.
Advertisement
Hours later, Fox News host Sean Hannity told him the media had been “spinning it” differently.
